
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

clia P' Copyright No 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BIBLE HEROES 



Stories from the Bible 







REBEKAH. 



Bible Heroes 



Stories from the Bible 



BY ,y 



MARY A^LATHBURY 

WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

BISHOP JOHN H. VINCENT 



ILLUSTRATED 

WITH NUMEROUS FULL-PAGE COLORED PLATES, 
AND PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS 



Boston 

DeWolfe, Fiske & Co. 



COPYRIGHT, 1898 

By DeWolfe, Fiske & Co. 







COPY, 






^ 



3$ 



PREFACE. 



To Mothers. 

I HAVE been asked to prepare this little aid for your use in the Home 
— that first and greatest of schools. The school was founded by the 

Maker of men, and He called mothers to be its earliest and most 
important teachers. He prepared a text-book for it which we call His 
Word, illustrating it richly and fully from life and Nature, and filling 
it with His Spirit. Wherever it is known, as the children become the 
members of the Church, the citizens of the State, the people of the 
World, the Book goes with them, forming the Church, the State, the 
World. It is not only equal to the need, but contains infinite riches 
that wait to be unveiled. 

That no busy mother may say, "I cannot take time to gather from 
the Bible the simple lessons that my children need," this book of little 
stories — together making one — has been written. I have tried to preserve 
the pure outlines of the sacred record from the vivid description and the 
suggestive supposition that are sometimes introduced to add charm to the 
story, and in all quoted speech I have used the exact words of the author- 
ized version of the Scriptures, so that the earliest impression made upon 
the memory of the child might be one that should remain. 

The stories are not a substitute for the Word — only little approaches 
to it through which young feet may be guided by her who holds a place 
next to the great Teacher in His work with little children. 

M. A. L. 



INTRODUCTION 



WHEN the children gather at mother's knee, and the tiniest finds a 
place in mother's arms, and all clamor for a " story 7 ," "a story, 
mamma," how lovely is the picture — the living picture — that 
circle makes ! Love, longing, wisdom, expectancy, faith, shining eyes, 
lips that move involuntarily, keeping time to the sweet movements of 
mother's lips ! Blessed group ! Happy mother ! 

When the stories mother tells are light and meaningless, full of rhyme 
and rollick, even their eyes are bright and faces radiant, and her own sweet 
face and voice give charm and weight and significance to the delicious non- 
sense she rehearses. 

Why not give to this receptive and eager audience stories full of 
deepest meaning, facts, parables, myths charged with truth? Why not 
people little memories with heroes, saints, kings, prophets, aposties ? Why 
not give stories to story-loving youngsters that will turn into immortal 
pictures and be transformed some day into living factors in the making of 
character ? And why not give them as comparison the babe of Bethlehem, 
the boy of Nazareth, the lad of twelve years in the schools of the Temple, 
the man of gentie love, the preacher of righteousness, the worker of heavenly 
wonders, the Son of Man, the Son of God the Prince of Peace ? 

The Book of books is the children's Book. It is a story book. And the 
stories are "true stories." And the lessons to be drawn from them are num- 



viii. INTRODUCTION. 

berless, and will come up out of the treasure-house of memory when mother's 
eyes are closed and her voice silent. 

It is a great thing to put mother and the Book together in Baby's 
thought ; in the big boy's memory ; in the grown-up man's heart and life. 

This book is mother's book ; to aid her in doing the best and most lasting 
work a mother can do to sow seed and set out vines the branches of which 
shall reach into the world of spirits, and from which she and her children may 
long afterwards pluck fruit together in the eternal kingdom. 

JOHN H. VINCENT. 

Chautauqua, 1898. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER. 

I. THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 

II. THE GREAT FLOOD 

III. ABRAHAM— THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL 

IV. ISAAC, THE SHEPHERD PRINCE 
V. JACOB, A PRINCE OF GOD 

VI. JOSEPH, THE CASTAWAY . 

VII. JOSEPH, A SERVANT, A PRISONER AND A SAINT 

VIII. JOSEPH, THE SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE 

IX. THE CRADLE THAT WAS ROCKED BY A RIVER 

X. MOSES IN MIDIAN . 

XL THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT 

XII. FOLLOWING THE CLOUD . 

XIII. IN THE BORDERS OF CANAAN . 

XIV. A NATION THAT WAS BORN IN A DAY 
XV-XVI. SAMSON, THE STRONG . . 

XVII. RUTH ....... 

XVIII. SAMUEL— THE CHILD OF THE TEMPLE 

XIX. THE MAKING OF A KING . 

XX. THE SHEPHERD BOY OF BETHLEHEM 

XXI. THE POWER OF A PEBBLE 

XXII. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH .... 

XXIII. DAVID, THE OUTCAST . 



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79 



(ix.) 



X. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. 

XXIV. EVERY INCH A KING 

XXV. DAVID'S SIN ... 

XXVI. DAVID'S SORROW .... 

XXVII. THE BUILDING OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE 

XXVIII. ELIJAH, THE GREAT HEART OF ISRAEL 

XXIX. THE LITTLE CHAMBER ON THE WALL 

XXX. A LITTLE MAID OF ISRAEL 

XXXL THE TWO BOY KINGS . 

XXXII. THE FOUR CAPTIVE CHILDREN 

XXXIII. THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS . 

XXXIV. THE STORY OF JONAH 
XXXV. ESTHER, THE QUEEN 



PAGE. 
82 

84 

86 
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108 
109 
in 
116 
121 
125 



COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Rebekah .... 

Return of the Dove 

Jacob's Dream 

Joseph Sold into Egypt 

The Finding of Moses 

Ruth Gleaning 

The Child of the Temple 

The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem 

The Power of a Pebble . 

Saul Attempts the Life of David 

The Feeding of Elijah 

Daniel in the Lions' Den 



Frontispiece 
Opposite Page 1 
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RETURN OF THE DOVE. 



BIBLE HEROES. 



STORIES FROM THE BIBLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BEGINNING OF THINGS. 

AWAY back in the beginning of things God made the sky and the earth 
we live upon. At first it was all dark, and the earth had no form, but 
God was building a home for us, and his work went on through six 
long days, until it was finished as we see it now. 

On the first day God said, "Let there be light, " and the black night 
turned to gray, and light came. God called the light Day, and the darkness 
Night, and the evening and the morning made the first day. 

Then God divided the waters, so that there were clouds above and seas 
below, and He called the clouds heaven. It was the second day. 

Then the seas were gathered together by themselves, and the dry land 
rose above them, and God saw that it was good. Then He called to the 
grass, and the plants, and the trees to come out of the ground, and they 
came bearing their seeds, and He called the third day good. 

Then God called to the two great lights, the sun and the moon, to shine 
clear in the sky, which had been first dark, and then gray, and they rose and 
set to make day and night, and seasons and years, and the stars came also, 
and it was the fourth day. 

Then God called for all kinds of fishes that swim in the seas, and rivers, 
and for all kinds of birds that fly in the air, and they came, and it was the 
fifth day. 

And then God called for the animals to live on the green earth, and the 
cattle and the great beasts, and the creeping things came, and God called 
them all good. 

After this he made the first of the great family of Man. He made them 
after His own likeness. He made their bodies from the earth, but their souls 
He breathed into them, so that Man is a spirit, living in an earthly body, and 

(0 



2 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

can understand about God and love Him. He blessed them and told them 
to become many, and to rule over all the earth, with its beasts and birds, and 
fishes, and it was the sixth day. 

The Man's name was Adam, and the woman, who was made from a 
piece of Adam's body nearest to his heart, was named Eve. 

Then God's world was finished, and on the seventh day there was rest. 
God was pleased with all that was made, and He made the seventh day holy, 
by setting it apart from all the others. We keep the Sabbath, or the Lord's 
day still, in which his children may rest and worship. 

Adam and Eve were very happy, for they had never done anything 
wrong. God gave them a beautiful wide garden, called Eden, full of flowers 
and all kinds of fruit, and with a river flowing through it, and told Adam to 
take care of the garden, and He sent all the animals and birds to Adam to be 
named. God told him also that he might eat the fruit of all the trees of the 
garden except one — the tree of knowledge of good and evil — but if he ate of 
the fruit of that tree he should surely die, and Adam and Eve loved God, and 
had no wish to disobey Him, for He was their Father. 

But there was a creeping serpent in the garden, and the evil spirit that 
puts wrong thoughts in our hearts spoke to Eve through the serpent. 

"You shall not die," he said, "but you shall be wise like God if you will 
eat of this fruit," and Eve ate of the fruit, and gave it to her husband. Then 
they knew that they had sinned, and when they heard the voice of God in the 
garden calling them, they hid among the trees, for they were unhappy and 
afraid. When the Lord had asked Adam if he had eaten of the fruit that 
was forbidden, Adam laid the sin upon Eve, who gave it to him, and Eve 
said that the serpent had tempted her to eat of the fruit. God knew that 
they must suffer for their sin, so He sent them out of the garden to make a 
garden for themselves, and to work, and suffer pain, as all who came after 
them have done to this day ; but He gave them a great promise, that among 
their children's children One should be born who would be stronger than sin, 
and a Savior from it. 

After this two little children were sent to comfort Adam and Eve — first 
Cain, and then Abel. When they grew up Cain was a farmer, but Abel was 
a shepherd. 

They had been taught to worship God by bringing the best of all they 
had to Him, and so Cain brought fruit and grain to lay upon his altar, but 
Abel brought a lamb. 




DRIVEN FROM EDEN. 



4 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

God looked into their hearts and saw that Abel wished to do right, but 
Cain's heart was full of sin. Cain was angry because the Lord was pleased 
with the worship of Abel, and while they talked in the field Cain killed his 
brother. When the Lord said to Cain, " Where is thy brother ?" he answered, 
"I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?" And the Lord sent him away 
from home, to wander from place to place over the earth, and find no rest, 
but He promised that no one should hurt Cain, or kill him as he had killed 
his brother, so he went away into another land to live. 

Adam lived many years after this and had other children, but at last he 
died, when his children's children were beginning to spread over the land. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE GREAT FLOOD. 

As the people of the earth grew to be many more and spread over 
the plains and hills, they also grew very wicked. They forgot God, and 
all the thoughts of their hearts were evil. Only Noah still worshipped 
God and tried to do right. 

The people had destroyed themselves, and so God said to Noah : 

" The end of all flesh is come ; make thee an ark of gopher wood." 

He told Noah to make it of three stories, with a window in the top, 
and a door in the side. It was to be a great floating house, more than four 
hundred feet long and full of rooms, and it was to be covered with tar 
within and without, so that the water should not creep in. 

" I bring a flood of. waters upon the earth," said the Lord, " and every- 
thing that is in the earth shall die." 

This was to be the house of Noah, with his wife, and his three sons and 
their wives, during the great flood. 

Does the house seem large for eight people ? God had told Noah to 
make room for a little family of every kind of bird and beast that lived, 
and to gather food of all kinds for himself and for them. 

So Noah did all that the Lord had told him to do, and seven days be- 
fore the great storm he heard the Lord calling : 

" Come thou and all thy house into the ark," and that very day, Noah 
with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japtheth, and their wives, went 




THE GREAT FLOOD. 



6 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

into their great black house, and through the window in the top came flying 
the little families of birds and insects, from the tiny bees and humming birds, 
to the great eagles, and through the door on the side came the famlies of ani- 
mals, two by two, from the little mice to the tall giraffes, and the elephants, 
and when all had come the Lord shut them in. 

It rained forty days and forty nights, and the waters rose higher and 
higher, covering the hills, and creeping up the mountains, so that every living 
thing died except Noah, and all that were with him in the ark. 

But after ten months the tops of the mountains were seen, and Noah 
sent out a raven and a dove. The raven flew to and fro, but the dove came 
back into the ark, because she found no place to rest her foot. 

After seven days Noah sent her out again, and she returned with an 
olive leaf in her bill, and then Noah knew that the waters were going away. 

After seven days again he sent out his good little dove, and she did not 
come back. So Noah was sure that the earth was getting dry, and that God 
would soon tell him to go out of the ark. 

And so he did. Think how glad the sheep and cows were to find fresh 
grass, and the birds to fly to the green trees. 

What a silent world it must have been, for there were none but Noah 
and his family in all the earth. Noah did not forget how God had saved 
them, and he made an altar of stone, and offered beasts and birds as a sacri- 
fice. When he looked up to the sky there was a beautiful rainbow. It was 
God's promise that there should be no more floods upon the earth. He still 
sends the rainbow to show us that He is taking care of this world, and will 
always do so. 

Perhaps the people who lived after this — for Noah's children's children 
increased very fast — did not believe God's promise, for they began to build a 
great tower, or temple, on the plain of Shinar ; or perhaps they had grown 
proud and wicked, and wanted a temple for the worship of idols ; but the 
Lord changed their speech, so that they could not understand each other, and 
they were scattered over other countries ; and so each country began to have 
a language of its own. 



CHAPTER III. 

ABRAHAM THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL. 

The people who lived four thousand years ago were very much like 
children who easily forget. They told their children about the great flood, 
but nearly all forgot to tell them of the good God who is the Father of us all, 
whom we should always love and obey. Yet there is always one, if not more, 
who remembers God, and keeps his name alive in the world. 

Abram had tried to do right, though there was no Bible in the world 
then, and no one better than himself to help him but God, and one day He 
called Abram, and told him to go away from his father's house into another 
country. 

"A land that I will show thee," said the Lord, " and I will make of thee 
a great nation." 

He also made Abram a wonderful promise, — 

"In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 

He meant that sometime the Savior should be born among Abram's chil- 
dren's children, and that He should be the Savior of all the nations of the 
earth. 

Abram did just what God told him to do. He took Sarai, his wife, and 
Lot, his nephew, and some servants, and cows, and sheep, and camels, and 
asses, and went into the land of Canaan. When they rested at night Abram 
and Lot set some sticks in the ground, and covered them with skins for a 
tent, and near by they made an altar, where Abram offered a sacrifice, for 
that was the only way they could worship God when the earth was young. 

Abram went down into Egypt when there was a lack of food in Canaan, 
but he came back to Bethel, where he made the altar before, and worshipped 
God there. 

He was very rich, for his cattle and sheep had grown into great herds 
and flocks, though he had sold many in Egypt for silver, and gold, and food. 
Abram and Lot moved often, for their flocks and herds soon ate up the grass. 
Then they rolled up the tents, and loaded the camels and asses, and went 
where the grass was thick and fresh. 

They could easily live in tents, for the country was warm. But Abram's 
herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen sometimes quarreled. And so Abram spoke 

(7) 



8 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

kindly to Lot, and told him to take his servants, and flocks, and herds, and go 
where the pastures were good, and he would go the other way. So they 
parted, and Lot went to the low plains of the Jordan, but Abram went to the 
high plains of Mamre, in Hebron, and there he built another altar to the 
Lord, who had given him all that country — to him and to his children forever. 

There were warlike people in Canaan, and once when they had carried 
off Lot from Sodom, Abram took his servants and herdsmen and went out to 
fight. He had more than three hundred men, and they took Lot away from 
the enemy, and brought him back to Sodom. It was here that Abram met a 
wonderful man, who was both a king and a priest. His name was Mel- 
chisedek, and he brought Abram bread and wine, and blessed him there. 

After this, God spoke to Abram one evening, and promised that 
he should have a son, and then while Abram stood outside his tent, with 
the great sky thick with stars above him, God promised him that his chil- 
dren's children should grow to be as countless as the stars. That was hard 
to believe, but Abram believed God always and everywhere. 

Still no child came to Abram and Sarai, and Abram was almost a hun- 
dred years old, but God spoke to him again, and told him that he should be 
the father of many nations. 

He told Abram that a little boy would be born to them, and his name 
would be Isaac, and God changed Abram's name to Abraham, which means 
" Father of many people," and Sarai's to Sarah, which means " Princess." 

Abraham was sitting in his tent one hot day, when three men stood by 
him. They were strangers, and Abraham asked them to rest beneath the 
tree, and bathe their feet, while he brought them food. So Sarah made cakes, 
and a tender calf was cooked, and these with butter, and milk, were set before 
the men. But they were not men of this world ; they were angels, and they 
had come to tell Abraham and Sarah once more that their little child was sure 
to come. Then the angels went away, but one of them, who must have been 
the Lord Himself in an angel's form, stopped to tell Abraham that He was 
going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, because the people who lived there 
were so very wicked, and Abraham prayed Him to spare them if even ten 
good men could be found in them, for he remembered that Lot lived in Sodom. 
But the Lord never forgets. The two angels went to Sodom and stayed with 
Lot until morning, when they took him and all his family outside the city, and 
then the Lord said to him, " Escape for thy life — look not behind thee, neither 
stay thou in all the plain." 




THE THREE STRANGERS. 



io CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

And the Lord hid them in the little town of Zoar, while a great rain of 
fire fell upon the wicked cities of the plain, until they became a heap of ashes. 
Only Lot's wife looked back to see the burning cities, and she became a pillar 
of salt. 

The next morning when Abraham looked from Hebron down toward the 
cities of the plain, a great smoke was rising from them like the smoke of a 
furnace. 

At last the Lord's promise to Abraham and Sarah came true. A little 
son was born to them, and they called him Isaac. They were very happy, 
for though Abraham was a hundred years old, no child had ever been sent 
them. 

When he was about a year old they made a great feast for him, and all 
brought gifts and good wishes, yet the little lad Ishmael, the son of 
Hagar, Sarah's servant, mocked at Isaac. Sarah was angry, and told her 
husband that Hagar and her boy must be sent away. So he sent them out 
with only a bottle of water and a loaf of bread ; for God had told Abraham 
to do as Sarah wished him to do, and He would take care of little Ishmael, 
and make him the father of another nation. 

When the water was gone, and the sun grew very hot, poor Hagar laid 
her child under a bush to die, for she was very lonely and sorrowful. While 
she hid her eyes and wept, saying, 

"Let me not see the death of the child," she heard a voice out of 
heaven telling her not to be afraid. 

"Arise, lift up the lad," said the voice, "lor I will make him a great 
nation." 

And God opened her eyes to see a well of water near. Then she filled 
the empty bottle, and gave the boy a drink, and God took good care of them 
ever after, though they lived in a wilderness. 

Ishmael grew up to be an archer, and became the father of the Arabs, 
who still live in tents as Ishmael did. 

But the Lord let a strange trial come to the little lad Isaac, also. His 
father loved and obeyed God, but there were heathen people around them, 
who worshipped idols, and sometimes killed their own children as a sacrifice 
to these idols. Abraham brought the best of his lambs and cattle to offer to 
the Lord ; but one day the Lord told Abraham to take his only son Isaac and 
offer him upon a mountain called Moriah as a burnt sacrifice to God. Abra- 
ham had always obeyed God, and believed his word, and now, though he could 
not understand, he rose up early in the morning and took his young son, with 




HAGAR IN THE DESERT. 



12 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

two servants, and an ass loaded with wood, to the place of which God had told 
him. 

They were three days on the journey, but at last they came to the high 
place, where the city of Jerusalem was afterward built, and to the very rock 
upon which the temple was built long afterward, with its great altar and Holy 
of Holies. 

Abraham had left the young men at the foot of the mount, and went with 
Isaac to the great rock on the top of the mount. 

" My father," said Isaac, "where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" 

" My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering," said his 
father, still obeying God, and believing His word, that Isaac should be the 
father of many nations. 

Abraham made an altar of stones, and bound Isaac and laid him upon it, 
but when his hand was lifted to offer up the boy, the Lord called to him from 
heaven. " Lay not thine hand upon the lad," said the voice, " for now I know 
that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thine only son from me." 

Then Abraham turned and saw a ram with its twisted horns caught in 
the bushes, and he offered it to the Lord instead of his son. How glad and 
grateful Abraham must have been that morning, when he came down the 
mountain, with Isaac walking beside him, to think that he had still obeyed 
God when it was hard to do so. 

Abraham was an old man when Sarah died. They had lived together a 
long lifetime, and he mourned for her many days. He bought a field close by 
the oak-shaded plain of Mamre in Hebron, and there in a rocky cave he 
buried her. He was called a Prince of God by the Canaanites because he 
lived a true, faithful life. 

A few years after he also went to God, and his body was laid beside 
Sarah's in the cave-tomb. Ishmael came up from the south country to mourn 
with Isaac at the burial of their father, the Friend of God, and Father of the 
faithful. 




ON MOUNT MORIAH. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ISAAC THE SHEPHERD PRINCE. 

Before Abraham died, he thought much about his dear son Isaac, to 
whom he was going to leave all that he had. The young man had no mother, 
no sister, and soon he would have no father. So the old man called his old 
and faithful servant, and told him to go on a journey into the land of his 
fathers, and bring back with him a wife for his son Isaac. 

The children of Nahor, Abraham's brother, lived there still, and Abra- 
ham wished for his son Isaac a wife of his own people, who should be both 
good and beautiful, and not like the heathen women of Canaan. 

So the old servant listened to Abraham and promised to do all that he 
commanded. 

He loaded ten camels with presents for his master's family away in 
Syria, and Abraham said : 

"The Lord shall send His angel before thee," and from his tent door he 
saw the little caravan of camels and servants, as they set out across the 
plain, toward the land beyond the river Jordan. 

There was a desert to cross and many dangers to meet, but the old 
servant believed in the God his master worshipped, and was not afraid. 

When he came to Haran, he stopped outside the town by a well of 
water. It was early evening, and the women were coming each with a 
water-jar on her shoulder, to draw water. 

The old man prayed that the Lord would show him which among these 
daughters of the men of the city, was the one who was to be his young mas- 
ter's wife. 

Before his prayer was ended, Rebekah, of the family of Abraham's 
brother Nahor, came bearing her pitcher on her shoulder. She looked very 
kind and beautiful, and when she had filled her pitcher, the old man asked 
her for a drink of water. Then she let down the pitcher upon her hand 
saying : 

" Drink, my lord," and asked if she should also give water to his 

camels. While she was giving him a drink, the man showed her some 

golden jewels that he had brought, and when he had asked her name, and 

knew that God had sent her to him for his young master, he gave them to 

(14) 



ISAAC THE SHEPHERD PRINCE. 15 

her, and worshipped the Lord who had led him to the house of his master's 
brother. 

Then Rebekah ran in and told Laban, her brother, and the old servant 
of Abraham had a warm welcome at the door of Nahor's house. 

"Come in, thou blessed of the Lord," they said. 

And after they had cared for the camels and the men, there was a hur- 
rying of servants to prepare a feast, but the old man would not taste food 
until he had given the message of his master. Then the father and brother 
of Rebekah, saw that the Lord had sent for her, and they said : 

"Let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken." 

And the old servant bowed his face to the ground worshipping the 
Lord who had led him. 

Then there was feasting and giving of costly gifts, and preparing to 
take a long journey, for the old servant was in haste to get back to 
his master, and Rebekah, who was willing to go, took her maid-servants and 
rode away into a far country to be the wife of Isaac. 

When Isaac was walking in his field at sunset, thinking and praying to 
God, he looked up and saw that the camels were coming, and he hastened to 
meet them. When the old servant told Rebekah that it was his young 
master, she alighted from her camel, and covered herself with a long veil 
as was the custom of the Syrian women. When the old servant had told the 
story of his journey, he gave Rebekah to Isaac, and he took her to the tent 
that had been his mother's, and she became his wife, so that he was no longer 
lonely and sad. 

Isaac lived to a very great age, and had two sons, Jacob and Esau. He 
was a gentle, quiet man, fond of his family, his flocks, and herds, and at the 
place where his father and mother were buried, he lived among the fields 
and oak groves of Hebron until he died. 



CHAPTER V. 

JACOB, A PRINCE OF GOD. 

Jacob and Esau were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 

They did not look alike as twins often do, and they were very unlike 
in all their ways. As they grew up, Esau loved the forests and wild places. 
He made bows and arrows, and was a hunter, and brought home wild birds 
and deer, for his father was very fond of such food. Jacob helped his father 
with the flocks, and learned how to cook food from his mother, who loved 
him more than she loved Esau. 

One day Esau came home from hunting tired and hungry, and smelled 
the delicious soup of red lentils that Jacob was making. He begged Jacob 
to give him some, and Jacob, who wanted to be eldest, and have the right to 
the blessing that fathers gave to the first-born in those days, said : 

" Sell me this day thy birthright," and Esau gave him all his rights as 
the first born, for a little food which he might have had as a free gift. 

Jacob wanted to be counted in the great promise that God had given 
to Abraham, but Esau despised it. 

Afterward, when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim, he called Esau, 
and asked him to go out into the fields and shoot a deer, and cook the veni- 
son that he loved, so that he might eat it and bless his first born before he 
died. 

Rebekah heard it, and told Jacob to bring kids from the flock, which she 
cooked and served as venison. Then she dressed Jacob in the clothes of 
Esau, and told him to say that it was Esau who had brought the venison. 
Isaac said : 

"The voice is the voice of Jacob," but he put his hands on him, and 
believed it was Esau, and blessed him. 

When Esau came home and brought venison to his father, Isaac said : 

" Who art thou ? " and when Esau said, "I am thy son, thy first-born, 
Esau," the old man trembled, and told Esau the blessing had been given to 
another. 

Poor Esau cried out with grief, " Hast thou but one blessing? " " Bless 

me, even me also, O my father." 

(16) 




JACOB'S DREAM. 



18 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

And so Isaac blessed him, but he could not call back the blessing of the 
first-born. The Lord knew that Jacob would grow to be a good man, and 
love the things of God best, and that Esau would always love the things of 
this world best, yet it was wrong of Jacob and Rebekah to deceive, for we 
may not do evil that good may come. 

After this Esau hated his brother, and said he would kill him. 

So Isaac called Jacob, and, blessing him again, sent him away into Syria 
to the house of Laban, where Rebekah had lived, and where Abraham's 
servant went to find her for his master's son. 

One night, when he was not far on his way, he lay down to sleep, with a 
stone for his pillow, on a hillside that looked toward his home, and he dreamed 
a wonderful dream. He saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and a 
vision of angels who were going up and down upon it. 

Above it stood the Lord, who spoke to Jacob, and gave to him the 
promise that He had first given to Abraham, and told him that He would go 
with him, and bring him again into his own land. 

Jacob was afraid when he woke, for he had seen the heavens opened, and 
had heard God's voice. He made an altar of the pillow of stone, and called 
it Bethel — the House of God — and then he vowed that the Lord should be 
his God, and he added, — 

"Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give a tenth unto thee." 

When Jacob came to Haran, he saw the well from which his mother used 
to draw water. There were three flocks of sheep lying by it, waiting for all 
the flocks to gather in the cool of the day to be watered. Soon Rachel, the 
daughter of Laban, came leading her father's flocks, and one of the shepherds 
told Jacob whose daughter she was. 

So Jacob rolled the stone from the well, and watered the flocks of Laban, 
his mother's brother. Then he kissed Rachel, and told her that he was 
Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. 

There was great joy in Laban's house because Jacob had come, and after 
he had stayed a month with them Laban asked him to stay and take care of 
his flocks, and he would pay him for his work. 

Since the day he had seen Rachel leading her father's flocks he had 
chosen her in his heart to be his wife. So he said that he would work for 
Laban seven years, if at the end of that time he would give him Rachel for 
his wife. Laban was quite willing to do so, and the seven years seemed to 
Jacob but a few days, for the love he had to Rachel. But, according to the 
custom of that country, the younger daughter could not be given in marriage 




ISAAC BLESSING JACOB. 



2o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

before the elder, and so Laban gave his daughter Leah also, and both Leah 
and Rachel became the wives of Jacob, for Jacob lived in that far away time 
and country of the early world when men were allowed to take more than one 
wife, and when each man was both king and priest over his family and tribe, 
and worshipped God by offering burnt sacrifices upon an altar. 

After twenty years of work with Laban, in which he had earned many 
flocks and herds for himself, Jacob took his wives and the little sons God had 
sent him, and his flocks and herds, and started on a journey to his old home. 
Isaac was still alive, and Jacob longed to see him. He had lived long in 
Haran for fear of his brother Esau, and now he must travel through Edom, 
Esau's country, on his way to his old home. 

As he was on his way some of God's angels met him, and he was 
strengthened. Still he feared Esau, and sent some of his men to tell his 
brother that he was coming. 

The men came back, saying that Esau, with four hundred men, was 
coming to meet them. 

Poor Jacob ! He remembered the sin of his youth, when he had stolen 
the blessing from Esau, and he was afraid, and prayed God to protect him. 

He sent his servants again to meet Esau with great presents of flocks, 
and herds, and camels, and after placing his wives and little ones in the safest 
place, he sent all that he had over the brook Jabbok, and he stayed on the 
other side to pray. It was as if he wrestled with a man all night, and when 
the day began to break the man wished to go, but Jacob said: 

11 1 will not let thee go except thou bless me." 

So the man blessed him there, and call his name Israel; "for as a 
prince," he said, " hast thou power with God and with men, and hast pre- 
vailed." 

Then Jacob knew that the Lord Himself, in the form of a man, had been 
with him, and he had seen Him face to face. 

And as the sun rose he passed over the brook. When he looked up he 
saw Esau and his men coming, and when he had told his family to follow him, 
he went straight before them, for he was no longer afraid to meet his brother. 

Jacob's prayer had been answered, and Esau ran to meet his brother, and 
throwing his arms around him, wept on his shoulder. Then they talked in a 
loving and brotherly way, and Esau returned to his home with the presents 
Jacob had given him, and Jacob went on his way into Canaan full of joy and 
thankfulness. He stopped a little while in a pleasant place to rest his flocks 
and cattle, but he longed to see the place where he first saw the angels of 




JACOB AND RACHAEL. 



22 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

God, and heard the voice of the Lord blessing him, so they journeyed on to 
Beth-el, and there built an altar'and worshipped God. 

Again the Lord spoke to Jacob at Beth-el, and called him Israel, and 
blessed him. 

After they left Beth-el, they came near to Bethlehem, where many hun- 
dred years afterward the Lord Jesus was born, and there another little son 
was born to Rachel, and there too God sent for her, and took her to Himself, 
and there her grave was made. 

The little boy was named Benjamin, and was the youngest of Jacob's 
twelve sons, who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the 
princes of a great nation. 

Jacob was almost home. His great family, with all the flocks and herds, 
had been long on the way, for they often spread their tents by the brooks in 
the green valleys, that the cattle might rest and find pasture, but at last the 
long caravan came slowly over the fields of Mamre to Hebron, and Isaac, 
whom the Lord had kept alive to see his son once more, was there in his tent 
waiting for him. 

But soon after this he died, an hundred and eighty years old, and Esau 
came, and the two brothers laid their father in the cave that Abraham bought 
when Sarah died, and where he had buried Rebekah, and Jacob became 
patriarch in place of his father. 



CHAPTER VI. 

JOSEPH, THE CASTAWAY. 

Of all the sons of Jacob, Joseph and Benjamin were the dearest to him, 
because they were the sons of his beloved Rachel, who had died on the 
journey from Syria into Canaan. They were also the youngest of all the 
twelve sons. When Joseph was about seventeen years old, he sometimes 
went with his elder brothers to keep his father's flocks in the fields. He 
wore a long coat striped with bright colors, which his father had given him, 
because he was a kind and obedient son, and could always be trusted. 

Once he told his lather of some wicked thing his brothers had done, and 
they hated him for it, and could not speak pleasantly to him. 




MEETING OF JACOB AND ESAU. 



24 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

Joseph had many strange and beautiful thoughts when he looked across 
the fields to the hills, and up into the starry sky at night. He also had some 
strange dreams that he told to his brothers. He said that he dreamed that 
they were binding sheaves in the field, and that his sheaf stood up, while the 
sheaves ol his brothers bowed down to it. 

Again he dreamed that the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars bowed 
down to him. 

His father wondered that he should have such thoughts, and reproached 
him saying, " Shall I and thy brethren indeed come and bow down ourselves 
to thee to the earth ?" and his brothers said, 

" Shalt thou indeed rule over us ?" and they hated him. 

When they were many miles from home with the flocks their father sent 
Joseph to see if all was well with them. It was a long journey, and when 
they saw the boy coming they did not go to meet him, and speak kindly to 
him, but they said, 

11 Behold this dreamer is cometh. Let us slay him, and cast him into 
some pit, and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall 
see what will become of his dreams." 

But Reuben, the eldest, said, 

"Let us not kill him ; but cast him into this pit," hoping to take him out 
secretly, and send him to his father. 

So when Joseph came near, they robbed him of his coat of many colors, 
and cruelly cast him into a pit. After this they sat down to eat their bread, 
and looking up they saw a caravan coming. It was a company of Ishmaelites 
carrying costly spices down into Egypt to sell them. 

Then Judah said, 

" Why should we kill our brother ? Let us sell him to these Ishmaelites." 

Then there passed by some Midianite merchants, and who drew Joseph 
out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and 
he was carried down into Egypt. 

Reuben, when his brothers went back to their flocks, went to the pit to 
try to save Joseph, but he was not there, and Reuben cried out, 

" The child is not, and I, whither shall I go ?" 

The brothers who had been so cruel to Joseph brought his coat to their 
father, all stained with blood. They had themselves dipped it in the blood of 
a kid to deceive him, and he mourned long, and would not be comforted, for 
the beloved child that he believed had been torn in pieces by evil beasts. 



CHAPTER VII. 

JOSEPH, A SERVANT, A PRISONER, AND A SAINT. 

The king of Egypt, where Joseph was taken by the Ishmaelites, was called 
Pharaoh, and he had a captain of the guard named Potiphar, who bought 
Joseph for a house servant. Though he was the son of a Hebrew prince, 
Joseph did his work faithfully and wisely as a servant, and was soon made 
steward of the house, and was trusted with all that his master had, and the 
Lord made all that he did to prosper ; but the wife of Potiphar was a wicked 
woman, who persuaded her husband that Joseph was a bad man, and he was 
sent to prison. 

Even there Joseph won the hearts of all, until the keeper of the prison 
set him over the other prisoners, and trusted him as Potiphar had done. It 
was the Lord in Joseph who helped him to win the love and trust of those 
around him. 

Pharaoh sent two of his servants to prison because they had displeased 
him. 

One was his chief cook, and one was the chief butler, who always handed 
the wine cup to the king, and Joseph had the care of them. 

They each had a dream the same night, and were troubled because they 
could not understand them. Joseph asked them to tell him the dreams, for 
God knew what they meant. 

So the chief butler told Joseph that he saw a vine having three branches, 
and the branches budded and blossomed, and the blossoms changed into ripe 
grapes, and he took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and 
handed the cup to the king. 

Then Joseph said: "The three branches are three days. Within three 
days the king will take you out of prison, and you shall hand the king's cup 
to him as you used to do." 

Joseph also asked the butler, to think of him when he was again in the 
king's palace, and speak to the king to bring him out of prison, because he 
had been stolen from his own land, and he had done nothing wrong that 
he should be put in prison. 

Then the chief cook told his dream. He said that he dreamed that he 
carried three baskets on his head, one above another. 

(25) 



26 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

In the highest one was all kinds of cooked meats for Pharaoh, and the 
birds flew down and ate from the basket. 

"The three baskets are three days," said Joseph as he said to the butler, 
but he told the cook that in three days he would be put to death, and hanged 
on a tree, where the birds would eat his flesh. 

All this came true, for Pharaoh's birthday came, and he brought out the 
chief butler to serve at a birthday feast, but he hanged the chief cook. Yet 
the chief butler forgot Joseph, and did not speak to the king about him as he 
might have done. 

At the end of two long years, Pharaoh dreamed a dream. He thought 
he stood by the river of Egypt, and saw seven cows looking well kept and 
fat, came up out of the river. 

Behind them came seven other cows, looking thin and poorly fed, and 
the thin and poorly fed cows ate up the well-kept and fat ones. 

And Pharoah had a second dream. He thought he saw seven heads of 
wheat growing on one stalk — and they were all full of grain. After them 
came seven thin heads of wheat with no grain in them ; and the seven bad 
heads of wheat ate up the seven good ones. 

In the morning Pharaoh was troubled about these dreams, and called 
for his wise men who worked magic for him, and they could tell him nothing. 

Then the chief butler standing near the king remembered Joseph, and 
told Pharaoh of the young Hebrew who had told the meaning of his dream, 
and that of the chief cook, and they had come to pass as he had said, so 
Pharaoh sent for Joseph and said to him : 

"I have heard that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." 

Joseph answered the king humbly and wisely: 

"It is not in me," he said, "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of 
peace." 

When the king had told his dream Joseph said : 

"The dream is one," and then he showed him that the seven fat cows, 
and the seven full heads of wheat meant seven good years in the land of 
Egypt, when the harvests would be great ; and the seven lean cows, and 
the seven empty heads of wheat, meant seven years of famine, when the east 
winds should spoil the wheat, so there would be nothing to reap in time of 
harvest and the people would want bread. He told the king that he had 
better set a wise man over the land, who would attend to saving the grain 
during the seven good years, so that the people would have bread to eat in 
the seven years of famine. 




JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT. 



2 S CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

The king was greatly pleased with Joseph, and told him that God had 
taught him to interpret dreams, and had showed him things to come, and 
there could be no wiser man found to be set over the land. 

So he made Joseph a ruler over the whole land, and next to the king in 
all things. 

He put his own ring on his hand, and dressed him in the robes of a 
prince, and gave him an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife, so that there 
was no one in all the land of Egypt so great as Joseph, except the king. 

He built storehouses in every city, and stored the grain, until it was like 
the sand of the sea, and could not be measured. 

In the years of plenty two sons were born to Joseph, Manasseh and 
Ephraim, and then the seven years of dearth began to come. When the 
people began to cry to the king for bread, he always said, — 

" Go to Joseph ; what he says to you do." 

And Joseph and his helpers began to open the storehouses, and sell 
wheat to the Egyptians, and to the people of all countries, for the famine was 
in all lands. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JOSEPH THE SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE. 

The famine reached even to the fruitful land of Canaan,, and Jacob, 
though rich in flocks and herds, began to need bread for his great family. 
So he sent his ten sons down into Egypt to buy wheat, keeping Benjamin, 
the youngest at home. 

When they came before the governor they bowed down to him with their 
faces to the ground. Joseph knew them, though he acted as if he did not, 
and remembered his dream of his brother's sheaves bowing down to his 
sheaf. At first, he spoke roughly to them, and called them "spies." But 
they said that they were all one man's sons, and had come to buy food. 

Joseph still spoke roughly to them, not because he was angry, but be- 
cause he did not wish them to know him yet. His heart was full of love for 
them, and he was soon going to show them great kindness ; but when they 
told him that they had left an old father and a young brother at home, and 
one was dead, he still acted as if they did not tell the truth. 



JOSEPH— THE SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE. 29 

He said that to prove themselves true men one of them should go home 
and bring the youngest brother, and the others should be kept in prison un- 
til they returned ; and he put them all in prison. 

After three days, he said one might stay while the others took the wheat 
home to their families, but that they must surely come back and bring the 
boy with them. 

Then Reuben, who had tried to save Joseph from the pit long before, 
told his brothers that all this trouble had come upon them for their wicked- 
ness to their brother Joseph, and they said to each other in their own lan- 
guage: 

" We are verily guilty concerning our brother; when he besought us, we 
would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us." 

Joseph understood everything they said though they did not know it, for 
he had been talking to them through an interpreter, and they thought he was 
an Egyptian. Now his heart was so full that he had to go out of the room 
to weep. But he came back and chose Simeon to stay while the others went 
to Canaan to bring back Benjamin. 

They took the wheat that they had bought in bags, and went away ; but 
when they stopped at an inn to rest and feed their asses, one of the brothers 
opened his bag, and found the money that he had paid for the wheat in the 
top of his bag. Here was more trouble, and they were afraid. 

When they came home to their father they told him all that had hap- 
pened, and as they opened the bags, each one found his money. Jacob was 
deeply troubled ; for Joseph was gone, and Simeon was gone, and now they 
wanted to take Benjamin. 

Reuben who had two sons said: "Slay my two sons if I bring him 
not to thee." 

But Jacob said Benjamin should not go down to Egypt. But the wheat 
was gone in a short time, and they were likely to starve so great was the 
famine, and at last Jacob said they must go to Egypt again for food. 

Judah said they would go if Benjamin would go with them, but Jacob 
would not listen to this. He asked them why they told the man that they 
had a brother, and they replied, that the Governor had asked them if their 
father was yet living and if they had another brother. 

"Send the lad with me," said Judah, "if I bring him not unto thee, let 
me bear the blame forever." 

Then Jacob told them to take him and go, and also to take presents of 
honey, and spices, and balm, and nuts, and double the money, so as to 



3 o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

return that which was put in their bags, and he blessed them, and sent them 
away. 

They went down into Egypt, and stood before Joseph again. When he 
saw Benjamin with them he told the steward of his house to make ready a 
fine dinner for them, and bring them to him at noon, and he did so. 

Then the brothers were afraid that they were all to be put in prison, and 
at the door of Joseph's house began to tell the steward how they found the 
money when they opened their bags, and that they had brought it back 
doubled; but the steward spoke kindly to them, and said that he had placed 
their money, and that they need not fear, for God had given it back to them. 

Then he brought Simeon out, and they made ready to dine with the 
Governor at noon, and to give him their presents. 

When he came they bowed down to him and presented their gifts, and 
he asked them if they were well, and if the old man of whom they spoke 
was still alive, and they replied that he was. When he saw Benjamin, and 
knew that he was truly his own brother, the son of Rachel, he said : 

"God be gracious unto thee my son," and he went quickly to his own 
chamber, lest he should weep before them. 

When he came out to them again, and they sat down to dine, he placed 
the sons of Jacob by themselves, and the Egyptians of his house by them- 
selves, and the brothers were placed according to their ages — Reuben at the 
head and Benjamin last, and they wondered among themselves at this. 
Joseph also sent portions from his own table to his brothers, but the portion 
of Benjamin was five times greater than that of the others. 

The next morning their wheat was measured to them, and the asses 
were loaded with it, and they went on their way, but Joseph had told the 
steward to put the money of each man in the top of his bag, and in Ben- 
jamin's to put his silver cup. 

When they were a little away from the city, the steward overtook them, 
and charged them with stealing his lord's silver cup. 

The men were so sure that no one of them had stolen the silver cup, that 
they said, 

" Let him die with whom the cup is found, and the rest of us will be your 
slaves." 

So everybody's bag was opened from the oldest to the youngest, and the 
cup was found in Benjamin's bag. Then they rent their clothes for grief, and 
loaded the asses and went back to the city , and when they came to Joseph's 




JOSEPH MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO HIS BROTHERS. 



32 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

house, they fell on their faces before him, Joseph tried to speak sternly and 
said : 

" What deed is this you have done? " 

Judah said : 

"What shall we say unto my lord, or how shall we clear ourselves? We 
are my lord's servants." 

Then said Joseph : 

"The man in whose hand the cup is found he shall be my servant, and as 
for you, get you up in peace unto your father." 

Then Judah came nearer to Joseph, and all his soul came forth into his 
voice as he said : 

" O, my lord, let thy servant speak a word in my lord's ears !" 

Then he told the story of their coming down into Egypt, and of the old 
father and young brother whom he had asked them about ; of the love of this 
father for the little one, for his mother, and his brother now dead. He re- 
minded Joseph that he had told them to bring the boy to him, and that they 
had said, that if the boy should leave his father, his father would die ; but the 
governor had said, " Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye 
shall see my face no more." 

Then Judah told the story of the father's grief when he found that he 
must let Benjamin go down into Egypt, that they might buy a little food ; how 
he spoke of his two sons, that were the sons of Rachel — that one had been 
torn in pieces, and now if mischief should befall the other, it would bring his 
gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. He asked Joseph what he should do when 
he returned to his father without the lad, seeing that his life was bound up in 
the lad's life, and Judah begged him, as he had made himself surety for the 
lad, to take him to be his slave, but to let Benjamin return to his father with 
his brothers, 

"For how shall I go up to my father," said Judah, " and the lad be not 
with me ? " 

Then Joseph could bear it no longer. He told all the Egyptians to go out 
of the room, and then weeping so that the Egyptians and the people in the 
king's house heard, he made himself known to his brothers. 

"I am Joseph, your brother," he said, "whom you sold into Egypt," and 
he begged them to come near to him. 

" Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves," he said, for he saw that they 
were terrified, "for God sent me before you to save your lives by a great de- 



JOSEPH— THE SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE. 33 

liverance. It was not you that sent me hither, but God, and he hath made me 
a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." 

Then he told them to hasten and go to his father and tell him this, and 
ask him to come down at once, with all his flocks and herds, and dwell in 
Goshen, the best part of Egypt, for years of famine were yet to come. 

Then Joseph took little Benjamin in his arms and wept over him, and 
kissed him, and kissed all his brothers, and after that his brothers talked with 
him. The king heard the story of Joseph's brothers and was pleased. He 
told Joseph to send wagons for the wives and little ones of his brothers, and 
to tell them to bring their father, and all their cattle and sheep, and come to 
live in Goshen where they should have the best of the land for their flocks and 
herds. 

Joseph did as the king commanded, and also gave them food for the 
journey, and a suit of clothing to each brother, but to little Benjamin he gave 
five suits, and three hundred pieces of silver. He also loaded twenty asses 
with the good things of Egypt as presents to his father, so he sent them all 
on their journey saying : 

" See that ye fall not out by the way." 

When they came to Jacob in Hebron, they told him the wonderful story 
of the finding of Joseph, and his heart was faint, for he did not believe them ; 
but when he had heard all Joseph's messages, and had seen the gifts, and the 
wagons, he said : 

"It is enough: Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I 
die." 

So they began the long journey to Egypt, for it took a long time to travel 
with a great family, and with thousands of cattle and sheep. At Beersheba 
Jacob stopped and worshiped God, where his father had built an altar years 
before ; and God told him in the night that he need not fear to go down into 
Egypt, for He would there make him a great nation, and that He would bring 
him back again to his own land. 

So Jacob with all his children and their little ones, and all his flocks and 
herds came into Egypt. There were sixty-seven souls, and when they had 
counted Joseph and his two sons, there were seventy. 

Jacob sent Judah on before to see Joseph and ask the way to Goshen, so 
that they might go directly there with the cattle and sheep. And when Joseph 
knew that his father was coming, he went to meet him in Goshen, and there 
he wept on his father's neck a long time, and Jacob said : 



34 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

"Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive." 

After this Joseph presented five of his brothers to Pharaoh, and the king 
spoke very kindly to them, and gave them the best of the land for their flocks, 
and hired some of them to oversee his own shepherds. 

Joseph brought his father in also and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 

So the family of Jacob lived in peace, and were cared for by Joseph, just 
as the Lord had promised Jacob, when in a dream he saw the angels of God 
at Bethel, and heard above them the voice of the Lord blessing him, and 
saying : 

"Thou shalt spread abroad to the West, and to the East, and to the 
North, and to the South, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed." 

Joseph carried all Egypt through the years of famine, and saved seed for 
the people to sow their fields in the seventh year so that they said : 

"Thou hast saved our lives." 

He afterwards visited his father, and Jacob made him promise that he 
would bury him when he died in the tomb of Abraham and Isaac, his father, 
in his own land. 

When Jacob was near his end, Joseph brought his two little sons, Eph- 
raim and Manasseh, to his bedside, and the old man gave them his blessing, 
laying his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, the youngest, and his left 
hand on that of Manasseh the first born, even as Isaac had given the birth- 
right blessing to him instead of to Esau, and he said : 

" The angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads." 

Then he called all his sons together and told them what should befall them 
in the last days. To each one he spoke as a prophet speaks who has a vision of 
things to come, and he blessed them there. When he spoke to Judah, he told him 
that kings and lawgivers should arise from among his children until the 
Saviour of the world should come. 

Jacob was an hundred and forty-seven years old when he died, and there 
was great mourning for him. 

Joseph had the body of his father embalmed, as the Egyptians had the 
custom of doing, and after a long mourning in Egypt, Joseph and his brothers 
and many Egyptians who were Joseph's friends, carried the body of Jacob to 
Canaan, in a great procession, and buried him in the cave of Machpelah, where 
his fathers were buried. 

After they had returned to Egypt, the brothers of Joseph said : 



THE CRADLE THAT WAS ROCKED BY A RIVER. 35 

" Perhaps now he will hate us, and bring upon us all the evil we did to 
him." 

So they sent to him to ask his forgiveness for all that was past. Then 
Joseph wept, for he had nothing but love in his heart toward his brothers, and 
he wished them to trust him. He comforted them and spoke kindly to them, 
saying : 

" Fear not : ye meant evil unto me, but God meant it unto good. I will 
nourish you and your little ones." 

And so through all Joseph's life, and he lived one hundred and ten years, 
he was a tender father to all his family, and a wise ruler of the people, and 
he died after making his family promise to carry his body back into Canaan 
to be buried with his fathers when they themselves should go. 

" For God will surely visit you," he said, " and bring you out of this land into 
the land which he promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob." 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE CRADLE THAT WAS ROCKED BY A RIVER. 

After Joseph and all the sons of Jacob had grown old and had passed 
away, their children's children grew in numbers until they became a great 
multitude. 

The Pharaoh whom Joseph had served also died, and the king who fol- 
lowed him did not like the Hebrews. He feared them because they had 
grown to be strong, so he set overseers to watch them, and make them work 
like slaves. 

He treated them cruelly, and made them lift the great stones with which 
they built the tombs of the kings and temples of the gods. He also tried to 
kill all the little boys as soon as they were born, but the Lord took care of 
them. Also, the king told his servants, that wherever they found a baby boy 
among the Hebrews, to throw him into the river Nile, but the little girls, 
they should save alive. 

There was a man named Amrom, who, with his wife Jochebed, had a 
beautiful little boy whom they tenderly loved. They hid him as long as 
they could, and then when he was three months old and she could hide him 



36 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

no longer, she made up her mind to give him into the care of God. She 
made a little boat, or ark of stout rushes, that grew by the river. She 
wove it closer than a basket, and then covered it with pitch that the water 
might not enter, just as Noah covered the great ark before the flood. 

Then she wrapped her baby carefully and laid him in the little boat, and 
set it among the reeds at the edge of the river Nile. God and His angels 
watched the cradle of the child, and the river gently rocked it. Jochebed 
told the baby's sister to wait near by and see what might happen to him, and 
this is what happened, or rather what God prepared for the baby in the boat 
of rushes. 

The king's daughter came down to bathe in the river, and as her 
maidens walked up and down by the riverside, she called one of them to 
bring to her the little ark that she saw rocking on the river among the reeds. 
When she had opened it she saw a beautiful little child, and when it cried 
her heart was touched, and she longed to keep it for her own. 

"This is one of the Hebrew's children," she said, and as the baby's 
sister came near she asked the princess if she should go t and get a nurse 
from among the Hebrew women to bring it up for her, and the princess said 
to her, "Go," and the maid went and called the child's mother. The prin- 
cess said : "Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee 
thy wages." 

And the mother took her baby joyfully though she hid her joy in her 
heart, and carried him home to nurse and bring up for Pharoah's daughter. 

And the child grew, and when he was old enough his mother took him 
to the king's palace, and he became the son of the princess. She called his 
name Moses, which means "drawn out," because she drew him out of the 
water, 




THE FINDING OF MOSES. 



CHAPTER X. 

MOSES IN MIDIAN. 

Moses had teachers, and was taught all the learning of the Egyptians, 
but his heart was with his own people. He was grieved when he saw their 
burdens, and heard their cries when their taskmasters struck them. 

Once, when he was a grown man, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, 
and he struck the Egyptian and killed him, for he thought he ought to defend 
his people : and when he saw that the man was dead, he buried him in the 
sand. In a day or two Moses tried to make peace between two Hebrews 
who were fighting, and they answered him roughly, and one of them said : 

"Who made thee a ruler over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the 
Egyptian yesterday? " 

Then Moses was afraid, and when the king heard of it, and tried to take 
his life, Moses fled away out of Egypt, through a desert into Midian. There 
he found a well and sat down by it to rest. While he sat there the seven 
daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water for their father's flocks, 
and some rough shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up 
and helped them, and watered their flocks. When their father knew that a 
noble stranger had been kind to his daughters, he asked him to come into his 
house, and eat bread with him, and stay as long as he would. So Moses 
stayed and Zipporah, one of the seven sisters, became his wife. 

But Moses did not forget his people. God was preparing him to lead 
them out of bondage, and he learned many things, during the years that he 
kept the sheep of his father-in-law in the wilderness. 

One day he led his flocks across the desert to Mount Horeb or Sinai. 
There he saw a bush all bright within as if it burned. He drew nearer to see 
why the bush was not consumed, and heard the voice of the Lord calling him. 
The Lord told him to come no nearer, and to put off his shoes, for he stood 
on holy ground. Then the Lord told him that He was the God of his fathers, 
and that He had heard the cry of his oppressed .people in Egypt. 

"I know their sorrows," said the voice from the midst of the fire, "And 
I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to 
bring them up out of that land into a good land, and a large — unto a land 
flowing with milk and honey." 
(38) 



THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT. 39 

Then the Lord said that Moses must go to the new Pharaoh, for the old 
king was dead, and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses was a 
very humble man, and he could not believe that Pharaoh would listen to hirn 
or that the Hebrews would follow him, but the Lord said, 

" Certainly I will be with thee." 

And as a sign that it should be so, He said that after Moses had brought 
his people out of Egypt, they should serve God in this mountain. 

But Moses had many fears. He knew that he had been brought up as 
an Egyptian, and he feared that his people would not listen to his words. 

Then the Lord showed signs to Moses to help his faith. 

He turned the rod in Moses' hand into a serpent, and then when he was 
afraid of it, the Lord told him to take it in his hand and it became a rod 
again. 

He also turned his hand white with leprosy, and then changed it again 
to natural flesh, and told Moses, that these, and other signs he should show 
in Egypt — to prove that he was sent of God. 

But Moses felt himself to be so weak and faithless as a leader of his peo- 
ple, that he still cried out that he was " slow of speech, and of a slow tongue," 
and when the Lord said, "I will teach thee what thou shalt say," he did not 
believe, but begged the Lord to send by whom he would, only not by him. 

Then the Lord said that Aaron, the brother of Moses could speak well, 
and that he should go with him to Pharoah and to his people, and should 
speak for him, but that the wisdom and power of God should be with Moses, 
and that he should do wonders with the rod in his hand. 



CHAPTER XI. 
THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT. 

So Moses took his wife and his sons and returned to Egypt, and the rod 
of God was in his hand ; and Aaron, sent of God, came to meet him in the 
wilderness, and there Moses told him all that was in his heart, and all that 
God had sent him to do. 

When they came into Egypt they gathered the Israelites together, and 
Aaron spoke to them, and they believed his words, and the signs that Moses 
showed them. 
3 



4 o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

Afterward, they went to Pharoah and gave him the message of the Lord, 
and Pharoah said : 

" I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." 

And he began to oppress the Israelites more than he had ever done be- 
fore. They made bricks of clay mixed with straw, that hardened in the sun, 
and were as lasting as stone, but he forced them to find the straw wherever they 
could, and make as many bricks as before. This they did until no more straw 
could be found, and their Egyptian masters beat them cruelly because they 
failed to make the full number of bricks. Then they turned upon Moses and 
Aaron and said, that they had put a sword in the kings hand to slay them. 

Where could Moses turn except to the Lord who had sent him ? The 
Lord heard him and made to him again the great promise, as he did at the 
burning bush, and Moses told the people, but they could not believe it, for 
they were crushed under their cruel burdens. 

And now the Lord sent Moses and Aaron again to Pharoah, to show by 
sign and miracle, that their message was from Him. They took the rod that 
Moses brought from Mount Horeb, and Moses told Aaron to cast it down 
before the king, and it became a serpent. Pharoah called his wise men and 
wizards, and they did the same, only Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, and 
Pharoah would not listen to their words. 

But in the morning when Pharoah walked by the river the two men stood 
by him and said again : 

The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying : 

"Let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness," and then 
Aaron struck the waters of the river Nile with his rod, and the waters turned 
to blood. 

In all the land, in every stream and pond there was blood, so that the 
fishes died and no one could drink the water. 

But because the wizards could turn water to blood also, Pharoah's heart 
was hardened toward Moses and Aaron. 

While the people were digging wells for water, Aaron stretched forth 
his rod over the river again, and frogs came up from it, and spread over all 
the land and filled the houses of the people. This also the magicians did, but 
so great was the plague that the king said: 

"I will let the people go." 

" When shall I entreat for thee and for thy people to destroy the frogs 
from thee and thy houses?" said Moses; and Pharoah told him to do so the 
next day. 




THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT. 



42 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

So on the next day Moses prayed to the Lord that the frogs might go 
out of the land, and the Lord answered his prayer; but when Pharoah saw 
that the frogs had been destroyed his heart grew hard, and he would not 
listen to Moses and Aaron. 

Then another plague was brought upon the Egyptians. The dust of the 
land was changed to lice that covered man and beast, and this was followed 
by swarms of flies that settled upon all the land except Goshen where the 
Israelites lived. 

Then Pharoah said: 

"Go, sacrifice to your God in this land," but they would not worship in 
Egypt, and Pharoah at last told them that they could go into the wilderness, 
but they must not go very far away. So Moses prayed, and the swarms of 
flies were swept out of Egypt, but Pharoah did not keep his word. 

Then a great sickness fell upon the cattle and sheep of the country, 
though the flocks and herds of the Israelites were free from it ; and this was 
followed by a breaking out of boils upon men and beasts everywhere, even 
upon the magicians, but Pharaoh's heart was still too wicked to yield to God. 

Then came a great storm of hail over Egypt, such as had never been 
known in that sunny land. It killed the cattle in the fields, and destroyed the 
grain that was grown, and broke the trees and herbs. The lightnings fell 
also and ran upon the ground, and when it was over the heart of Pharaoh 
was still hard against God. 

Then Moses told Pharaoh that the face of the earth would be covered 
with clouds of locusts that would eat every green thing left by the storm, if 
he did not let God's people go. This frightened Pharaoh's servants and they 
begged him to send them away, and though he would not let their wives and 
little ones go, he said: 

"Go now, ye that are men, for that ye did desire," and he drove them 
out of his presence. 

Then at the Lord's word, Moses arose and stretched forth his rod over 
Egypt, and the plague of locusts came, driven by the East wind, and covered 
the land until there was no green thing left in Egypt. 

Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron in great haste, and confessing 
his sin, begged to be forgiven and to be saved from, "this death only," and, 
at Moses' prayer, a mighty west wind drove the army of locusts into the 
Red Sea. 

But again the heart of Pharaoh turned against God, and the Lord brought 
thick darkness over the land for three days, only in the homes of the Hebrews 



THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT. 43 

there was light. Then Pharaoh was willing to let them take their wives and 
their little ones, but not their flocks and herds, and because they would not 
leave them behind, Pharaoh drove Moses and Aaron from him in anger, saying : 

"See my face no more." 

But the Lord proposed to break the hard heart of Pharaoh. He told 
Moses to see that every Israelite should take a lamb from the flock and keep 
it four days. Then, at evening, he was to kill it, and dip a branch of hyssop 
in its blood, and strike it against the sides of his door, also over it, leaving 
three marks of blood there. Then he was to close his door and no one was 
to go out of it until morning. 

They were to roast the lamb and eat of it, and be ready for the journey 
they were to make, and it should be to them forever the feast called the 
Passover. They were to eat it with unleavened bread, and the feast should 
be kept forever from the first to the seventh day of the month, a holy feast to 
the Lord. 

And this is why it was called the feast of the Passover. At midnight, 
after the lamb was killed in each house of the Israelites, and the doors were 
shut, the Lord passed through the land, and wherever he saw the blood on 
the side posts and the top of the door, he passed over that house, and it was 
safe, but in every Egyptian house the first born died, from the child of Pharaoh 
who sat on the throne, to the child of the captive in the cell, and all the first 
born of cattle. 

The next morning a great cry went up from the land of Egypt, for there 
was not a house where there was not one dead. 

Then Pharaoh was quite ready to let the Israelites go. 

"Take all you have and be gone," he said. 

They were all ready, and rose up very gladly to join the great procession, 
led by Moses and Aaron, that gathered in Goshen, and started on its long 
journey toward the east. 

They had heard of the land of their fathers, and now they were going 
home to be slaves no more. They were a family of seventy souls when they 
came into Egypt, four hundred and thirty years before, and now they went 
out a great nation, as the Lord had promised when he blessed their fathers. 

The feast of the Passover has been the chief one held by the Israelites, 
from the time of their coming out of Egypt until now, and since Jesus held 
the Passover feast with his disciples on the night that he went forth to death, 
it has become to all Christians the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 



CHAPTER XII. 

FOLLOWING THE CLOUD. 

"God led the people," says the Word, as they came up out of Egypt. 
He gave them the two leaders by whom He had broken the power of Pharaoh, 
and set His people free, and He also set a great cloud in the air, just above 
and before them, to lead them in the right way. It was to them the presence 
of the Lord. By day it rose white and beautiful against the blue sky, and 
moved slowly before them. At night it stood still while they rested, and shed 
light over all the camp, for there seemed to be a fire within the cloud at night. 
How safe and happy they must have felt away from the cruel taskmasters of 
Egypt, and the Lord's presence, spreading a wing of cloud over them. They 
were not led by a straight way to Canaan, for a warlike people lived in the land 
which they must pass through, but they were led at first through a country 
without cities or armies, where they would not trouble many people or 
be troubled by them. They bore with them the embalmed body of Joseph, for 
they had promised to bury him with his fathers in the cave of Machpelah ; and 
they also had much wealth in herds, and flocks, and gold, and silver. Pha- 
raoh thought of this after they had gone, and his wicked heart grew harder 
than before, so he ordered his chariots and horsemen to follow them, and they 
found the Israelites camped by the Red Sea. 

Then there was great fear and mourning in the camp when they saw the 
army of Pharaoh coming, but Moses cried : 

" Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The Lord 
shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." 

Then the Lord told Moses to speak to the people that they go forward. 
He also told him to lift up his rod and stretch his hand over the sea and 
divide it, and the children of Israel should go on dry ground through the midst 
of the sea. Night was falling, and the waters lay dark before them, but the 
angel of God, the pillar of cloud and fire, moved from its place before them 
and went behind them, while Moses and Aaron led them on. Then the pres- 
ence of the Lord was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, but it gave a 
light by night to the Israelites. A strong east wind drove the waters apart 
all night, so that there was a way through the sea, and the waters were a wall 
upon their right hand and on their left. Pharaoh's army saw the broad path 

(44) 



46 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 



through the sea, and followed fast after the Israelites, but as morning- dawned 
the Lord looked from the cloud and troubled the Egyptians. Their chariot 
wheels came off, and all went wrong with them. 

At last the Lord told Moses to stretch his hand forth over the sea, that 
the waters might come back upon the Egyptians, and he did so; and as the 
sun rose, the sea swallowed up the Egyptian host, and their bodies were cast 
upon the shore. There on the other side stood the great host of Israel, and 
saw the salvation of God, and they believed in Him, and in Moses His servant. 

Then a great shout went up from the host of Israel. Moses led them in 
a song of praise, and Miriam, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine, and the 
women followed her in dances as they answered in a chorus of praise: — 

" Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and 
the rider hath he thrown into the sea." 

Soon they took up their journey, the cloudy pillar going before. There 
was but little water by the way, and after three days of thirst, they came to the 
waters of Marah, but they were bitter, and the people cried to Moses, 

" What shall we drink ?" 

Then the Lord showed him a tree which he cast into the waters, and 
they were made pure and sweet. Soon after they came to Elim, where there 
were twelve wells of water, and seventy palm trees, and there they rested. 

Again they took up their journey and passed through a desert land, 
where they could get no food, and again they complained to Moses because 
he had brought them into the wilderness to die. They did not yet believe 
that God could supply all their need. 

" I will rain bread from heaven for you," said the Lord to Moses. He 
was ready to provide, if they would only believe in Him and obey Him. 

Moses called them to come near before the Lord while Aaron should 
speak his word to them. As they came near and looked toward the wilder- 
ness where the cloud stood, the glory of the Lord shone out of it. The 
Lord had heard them speak harshly to Moses for bringing them into a de- 
sert to die, but he said, 

" At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with 
bread." 

And his word came true. Great flocks of quails came up and covered 
the camp at sunset, so that they caught them for food ; and in the morning 
the dew lay around them, and when it had risen, there lay on the ground a 
small, round, white thing, something like frost, or a little seed, and it tasted 
like wafers made with honey. The Lord told Moses that the people must 



FOLLOWING THE CLOUD. 47 

gather just enough to eat through the day, and no more. The morning be- 
fore the Sabbath they must gather enough for two days, for none would fall 
on the Sabbath. This was the bread that the heavenly Father provided for 
his children through all the years of their journey from Egypt to Canaan, and 
they called it " Manna." 

There were hard things to bear in the wilderness. Often when they 
wanted water for their little ones and their cattle, and could not find it, they 
were like fretful children when they were tired and thirsty. Once, at Horeb, 
Moses struck a rock with his wonderful rod, and water sprung out in a 
stream. 

There were enemies also in the way. The Amelikites came out to fight 
with the Israelites. The strong men went to meet the enemy, but Moses 
stood on a hill with the rod of God in his hand, and Aaron and Hur were 
with him. While Moses held up the rod, Israel prevailed ; but when he let 
down his hand Amalek prevailed. 

But Moses grew tired and they placed a stone for him to sit upon, and 
Aaron and Hur held up his hands on either side until the going down of the 
sun, when Amalek was conquered. Moses built an altar there, and called it 
" The Lord my Banner." 

They were now drawing near the Mount, where Moses saw the burning 
bush, and heard the Lord calling him to be the leader of his people. 

They were far out of their way to Canaan, but it was in the Lord's pur- 
pose to bring them into obedience and faith before he brought them into the 
promised land. They had lived long among the Egyptians, and were very 
far from being like Jacob and Joseph, but there were good and true men like 
Aaron, and Joshua, and Hur, who helped Moses. It was about three months 
after the children of Israel left Egypt, that they came into the wilderness of 
Sinai. There the " Mount of God " still lifts its great granite cliffs toward the 
sky. There are high valleys midway where it is cooler than below, and there 
the people encamped and waited to hear what God would say to them, for 
God talked with Moses on the Mount. 

He said He had chosen them, if they would obey his voice, to be a holy 
nation. He told Moses to tell the people to be ready, and on the third day 
He would come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai. 

And so it was, as the people looked there was a thick cloud upon the 
Mount, from which came thunder and lightning, and the sound of a great 
trumpet, while the mountain trembled as with an earthquake. Only Moses 
and Aaron could approach the holy Mount, and from it God gave to Moses 



48 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

the laws that the people were to live by, and Moses wrote them all down that 
he might read them to the people. A company of the Elders of Israel went 
up and saw the glory of God afar off, but God called Moses up into the Mount, 
and the cloud closed him round, while the Lord gave him the laws for a great 
nation, and the pattern of the tabernacle which He wished him to make for a 
church in the wilderness. 

Forty days and forty nights Moses was on the Mount with God, and then 
God gave him the ten great commandments written with his own hands on 
tablets of stone, that he might give them to the people. They were to be 
kept as the rules of life for all people in all times. 

Forty days and nights seemed a long time to the people camped around 
the Mount. Perhaps they thought Moses would never come back to lead them, 
for they began to think of the gods of Egypt, and asked Aaron to make one 
for them. So to please them he told them to bring him their gold ornaments, 
and he melted them and made a golden calf such as the Egyptians worshiped, 
and before it they made an altar, and they worshiped the calf. 

The Lord who sees all things told Moses to go down to the people for 
they were worshiping an idol. So Moses went down a little way and met 
Joshua, and they both went down and saw the people feasting, and singing, 
and dancing, and Moses cast the tablets of stone upon the ground and they 
were broken. The heart of Moses, too, was almost broken, but he destroyed 
the golden calf, and punished the people for their great sin, and then went up 
to the Mount to plead for the life of his people. 

" O this people have sinned a great sin," he cried, "and have made them 
gods of gold, yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray 
thee, out of the book which thou has written," so great was the love of Moses 
for his people. 

There was a time of repentance among the people after this, and Moses 
and his servant Joshua reared a tent outside the camp and called it the Tab- 
ernacle of the congregation. It was for worship until the true Tabernacle 
should be built according to the pattern given in the Mount. All who sought 
the Lord went to worship there, and the pillar of cloud came and stood at the 
Tabernacle door while Moses talked with God, and all the people saw it and 
worshiped. 

Moses prayed again for the people, and the Lord said : 

" My presences shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." 

The Lord called Moses again into the mount, and told him to bring with 




MOSES DESCENDING FROM THE MOUNT. 



5© CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

him two tablets of stone and He would again write the ten commandments 
upon them. 

So Moses hewed them from the rock and took them up into Mount Sinai. 
Then the Lord came down again in a thick cloud and talked with Moses, and 
wrote upon the tablets of stone. 

After forty days Moses came down to the people bringing the command- 
ments with him, but his face shone with a strange light that the people never 
saw before, and they were afraid of him. It was something above the light 
of the sun, for Moses had seen the Glory of the Lord. 

While they still camped around the mount they began to build the 
Tabernacle. Moses told the people to bring gold, and silver, and brass, and 
wood. They also brought precious stones, and oil for the lamp, and fine 
linen, and they gave so willingly that at last Moses told them that there was 
more than enough. 

These were put in the hands of two wise men whom the Lord had chosen 
and taught to do the work, and they had willing helpers among the people, 
for wise hearted women did spin with their own hands, and bring what they 
had spun, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen to make the hang- 
ings of the Tabernacle. 

If you would know all the beautiful and costly and curious things that 
were made for this church in the wilderness, you will find them described in 
the last chapters of Exodus. 

The Israelites camped a long time in the high valleys around the Mount 
of God, and at last set up the Tabernacle. It was so made that it could be 
taken down and carried with them when they journeyed, for it was a beautiful 
tent. Over it the pillar of cloud stood. Whenever it moved the people 
followed, and when it stood still, they rested. Within the Tabernacle they 
placed a beautiful chest of wood overlaid with gold, which ever after held their 
most precious things, the tablets of stone written upon by the Lord himself. 

This ''Ark of Testimony," as it was called, had rings at the sides through 
which men laid strong rods by which to carry it, and so had the golden table 
for bread, and the golden altar of incense. There was a beautiful seven- 
branched candlestick of pure gold in which olive oil was burned for a sacred 
sign, and there was a brazen altar for burnt offerings, and a great brazen bowl 
for washing, and other things to be used in the worship of the Sanctuary. 

There were beautiful garments, also, for the priests, Aaron and his sons, 
and for Aaron there was a wonderful breast-plate of gold set with twelve 
precious stones, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 



FOLLOWING THE CLOUD. 51 

When all was finished, and the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud that 
veiled the presence of the Lord came and covered it, and the glory of the 
Lord filled it, so that Moses could not enter; but the Lord spoke to him from 
the cloud, and told him how the priests should order the worship of the Lord 
there. 

Afterward, Aaron and his sons offered burnt offerings for their sins, and 
the sins of the people, in the way the Lord had commanded, and fire from 
the Lord came down and consumed the offering. 

When the people saw the answer of the Lord they fell on their faces 
before him. 

In the second month of the second year the cloud rose from over the 
Tabernacle, and then the people knew it was time to go on their Journey. 
So they took down the tent of the Tabernacle and put all things in order for 
the journey. Each of the twelve tribes descended from the twelve sons of 
Jacob marched by themselves, carrying banners, and having captains. In the 
midst of them all marched the Levites carrying the Ark and the different parts 
of the Tabernacle, and when the cloud stood still, they stopped and set up 
the Tabernacle, while the people formed their camp all around it in the order 
of their tribes. 

Still the manna fell with the dew at night, and the people gathered it in 
the morning, and when they tired of it, the Lord sent them quails again. 

Over and over the people complained and rebelled, but the Angel of the 
Lord's Presence still hovered over them, and led them toward the promised 
land. Forty years they were on the journey that was so easily made by the 
sons of Jacob when they went back and forth to buy wheat in the time of 
famine ; and forty-two times did they encamp on the way, yet the mercy of 
the Lord never failed them, and they were brought into their own land at last. 
Then the cloud was no longer needed to go before them, but long after, when 
they built a beautiful temple at Jerusalem in which to put the sacred Ark of 
Testimony, the cloud came again and filled the temple with the glory of the 
Lord. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

IN THE BORDERS OF CANAAN. 

While the host of Israel was in camp at Paran, the Lord told Moses to 
send men before them into Canaan to spy out the land. 

So he sent twelve men who walked through the land and saw the people, 
and the cities and the fields and the fruits. They were forty days searching 
the land and they brought from the brook Eschol a cluster of grapes so 
large that two of them bore it on a staff between them. They also brought 
some pomegranates and figs. 

When they came into the camp they said that the country where they 
had been was good, and flowing with milk and honey, but the people were 
strong, and the cities had very high walls. They said they saw giants there. 

Caleb, who was one of the twelve, and a good and true man, said : 

" Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it," 
but the men who were with him were afraid of the giants, and said they felt 
like grasshoppers before them. Then there was great w r eeping among the 
people all that night, and they said, 

"Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Moses and 
Aaron were greatly troubled, but the two good men, Caleb and Joshua, stood 
up and encouraged the people, saying that they need not fear, for the Lord 
had given them the land, yet they were ready to stone Caleb and Joshua. 

Then the Lord spake to Moses from the Tabernacle, and the people saw 
his glory. He said the people were unbelieving and disobedient, and for this 
reason they could not enter the promised land. He said, that all who were 
twenty years old and upward would die in the wilderness, except Caleb and 
Joshua, who had followed the Lord wholly. He also said that the people 
would be forty years in the wilderness, and only the youth and the children 
would live to enter Canaan. 

There was mourning and repentance then because of the word of the 
Lord, and the people promised again to believe and obey, but over and over 
they lost faith and rebelled, and great storms of trouble fell upon them. 

Once the earth opened and many were swallowed up ; a sudden sickness 
destroyed thousands. Near Mount Hor, where Aaron died, fiery serpents 
ran among the people, and all who were bitten by them died ; but there was 




THE RETURN OF THE SPIES. 



54 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

full forgiveness and cure for those who turned to the Lord. When the fiery 
serpents entered the camp Moses lifted a brazen image of a serpent up on a 
pole so high that it could be seen all over the camp, and whoever looked upon 
it lived. It was a sign of the coming Saviour. 

Between the marches and the battles with heathen tribes, some of whom 
were giants, Moses wrote in a book the laws that God gave him for the 
government of the people. They were wise laws, the keeping of which 
would bring health, peace and blessedness to the people. He gave the book 
to the Levites who carried the Ark, and they were to keep it always beside 
the Ark, and often read it aloud to the people. 

Moses said many things to the people, and as Jacob blessed his twelve 
sons, so Moses blessed each of the twelve tribes that descended from them, 
for he was near the end of his long life. The Lord had told him that He 
should take him to Himself before the people entered Canaan, and that 
Joshua must lead the people into the promised land. So when they had 
reached the borders of Canaan, and were encamped near the Jordan, the 
Lord called his tried servant up into Mount Nebo, that he might see the land 
beyond the Jordan, where the twelve tribes were to find their promised home. 
Then the Lord gave him a view of the land, and there he died, as Aaron died 
on Mount Hor. 

No one saw Moses die, and no one knows where he was buried, for the 
Lord buried him. He was one hundred and twenty years old, and yet as 
strong as a young man. After his death Joshua became the leader of Israel. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
A NATION THAT WAS BORN IN A DAY. 

The time had come for the people to cross the river Jordan, and enter 
their own land, and the Lord told Joshua to prepare the people for their last 
jourr r. ; before going over Jordan. Joshua first sent two men over the river 
ti> see the land. 

They went to the walled city of Jericho, and to the house of a woman 
named Rahab. The king heard that they were there and sent for them, but 
the woman hid them under the flax that she was drying on the roof of her 




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56 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

house. Afterward she let them down by a rope through a window (for her 
house was built on the town wall), and they escaped. They promised Rahab 
before they went, that if she would hang a long line of scarlet thread from the 
window on the wall, that when they came to take the city she should be saved 
and all her family because of her kindness to them. 

After they had returned to the camp they told Joshua that the Lord 
would surely give them the land, for the people were afraid of them. Then 
they rose up and marched to the banks of the Jordan and waited for Joshua 
to lead them over. Some of them remembered how they had passed through 
the Red Sea, and others had heard it from their parents, and they now waited 
to see the* salvation of God. Joshua told them to follow tne priests, and the 
Levites who would bear the Ark of the Covenant, so when Joshua said : 

" Behold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth 
over before you into Jordan," the people followed. 

The Jordan lay spread before them like a lake, for it was the time of year 
when it overflowed all its banks, but when the feet of the priests who bore the 
Ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters from above stopped 
and rose like a wall, while the waters below flowed away into the Dead Sea, 
and left a wide path for the people to walk in, and the Ark stood still in Jordan 
until every one had passed over. Then twelve men, one out of every tribe, 
took a stone from the bed of the river and carried it over for a memorial 
altar, so that when any should ask in years to come, "What do these stones 
mean ?" someone might tell them how the Lord led Israel through Jordan 
into their own land. 

After the Ark had come up from the bed of Jordan, and there was not 
one of all the thousands of Israel left behind, the waters came down from the 
place where they had stayed, and flowed down into the Dead Sea, and over- 
flowed the banks of Jordan as before. 

The stones were heaped in Gilgal where they camped, and directly be- 
fore them rose the walls of Jericho, and here they kept the passover. For 
forty years they had been fed with manna from heaven as they camped or 
journeyed in the wilderness, but now they began to eat the grain and the 
fruits of the land, and the manna fell no more. 

Nearly five hundred years before the family of Jacob left this land to go 
down into Egypt where Joseph was. They grew to be a great people, but 
they were slaves. Then the Lord sent Moses to make them free, and they 
began the long journey, which at last brought them to their own land. 



A NATION THAT WAS BORN IN A DAY. 57 

Forty years they were on the journey, and all this time they were pil- 
grims, but on the day that the Jordan ceased to flow, and parted while they 
passed over into the land promised to their fathers, they became a nation. 

The land was before them, and they had only to obey the Lord and his 
servant Joshua to conquer and possess it. 

As they filled the valley of the Jordan before Jericho, the hearts of the 
heathen fainted for fear, for they knew that only the Lord could divide a river 
to let his people pass. 

Joshua went out of the camp to look at Jericho, the walled city. It was 
shut up for fear of the Israelites, and there was no one to be seen. 

Suddenly Joshua saw a warrior standing with a drawn sword in his hand. 

" Art thou for us," said Joshua, " or for our adversaries?" and the 
warrior angel answered, 

11 Nay! but as Captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come," and 
Joshua fell on his face before him. 

He knew then that it was the Lord who would conquer Jericho, and he 
was told how the people were to help him. 

So Joshua called the priests, and told them to take up the Ark, and he 
told seven priests to go before it bearing trumpets of rams' horns. Then the 
army of Israel, ready for war, followed, half of them marching before the 
Ark, and half of them coming after, and as the trumpets gave a great sound, 
they marched once around the city, and then went to camp. This they did 
once every day for seven days, but on the seventh day they marched around 
the city seven times, and as the priests blew the trumpets for the last time, 
Joshua cried with a mighty voice, 

" Shout ! for the Lord hath given you the city." 

Then as a great shout went up from the people, the walls of the city fell 
down flat, so that the soldiers of Israel went up, every man straight before 
him, and took Jericho. 

And Rahab was not forgotten. The Lord cared for her little house on 
the wall, and she, with all her family, were brought into the Camp of Israel. 

And so by the conquest of Jericho the new nation of Israel began to 
possess its land. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SAMSON THE STRONG. 

All the days of Joshua — and he lived to be an hundred and ten years 
old — the Israelites were conquering the people who lived in Canaan, and 
dividing it among the tribes. Joshua was a father to them, as Moses had 
been, and when at last they were at rest, each tribe within its own borders, 
and they had begun to build their houses, and plant their fields, Joshua spoke 
words of loving counsel to the people, and they set up a stone under an oak 
tree, as a sign that they would always serve the Lord and keep the law, and 
then he went to be with God. After his death Israel was ruled by wise men 
called judges, who helped them to conquer the land little by little. Some of 
them were good men and brave warriors as Othniel and Gideon and Jephthah^ 
and one was a prophetess named Deborah, a noble mother in Israel, and one 
was a mighty man of strength, Samson, the son of Manoah. 

The people of Israel had turned away from the Lord, and could no 
longer conquer their enemies, but the Philistines had conquered them, and 
had been their masters for forty years, when the Lord sent Samson to deliver 
them. He was not a wise man like Moses or Joshua, but he had great 
strength, and the Lord used him against the Philistines. 

Once a young lion came roaring against him, and he caught it and rent 
it in two, as if it had been a kid. When he passed the same way afterward 
he saw that the bees had built a nest in the body of the lion, and it was full 
of honey. At his marriage feast — for he married a Philistine woman — he 
made a riddle for the young men to guess : 

" Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong, come forth 
sweetness." 

They tried for seven days to guess the riddle, but they could not, and 
then they told Samson's wife to find it out for them, or they would burn her 
house. She begged him with tears to tell her, and at last he told her of the 
honey comb in the body of the lion, and she told the young men, so that at 
the end of the seventh day they said to Samson, 

" What is sweeter than honey ?" and " what is stronger than a lion ?" 

He saw that he had been betrayed, so he paid his debt, a suit of clothes 
to each guest, and went home to his father's house. Afterwards when he 

(58) 




THE YOUNG SAMSON. 



6o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

found that his wife had been given to another he tied firebrands to the tails 
of three hundred foxes, and sent them among the wheat fields of the Philistines 
so that the fields were set on fire. 

Once the men of Gaza tried to kill him when he was within their city, 
but he rose at midnight and took the city gates, with its posts and bar, and 
carried them away on his shoulders to the top of the hill. Again the Philistine 
lords had promised a great deal of money to a woman, if she would get 
Samson to tell her what made him so strong, so she begged him to tell her. 
Three times she thought she knew the secret, and told the Philistines, but 
they could not bind him. At last he was tired of her questions, and said to 
her plainly — that from a child no razor had ever touched his hair. If it should 
be cut he would be as weak as other men. Then she watched and cut his 
hair while he slept, and the Philistines bound him and carried him to Gaza, 
where they made him blind, and forced him to grind in the mills of a prison 
house. The Philistines were glad because Samson was their prisoner at last, 
and so they came together in a great feast to sacrifice to their god Dagon, for 
they said, 

"Our god has delivered Samson into our hands." While they were 
merry they said: 

"Let us send for Samson to make sport for us," and he was brought 
out of the prison. It was very sad to see the strong judge of Israel, weak and 
blind, led by a little lad, and making sport for the people in front of their 
temple. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and upon the broad roof 
of the temple were about three thousand people watching Samson while he 
showed his strength, for his hair had grown and his strength was returning. 
At last as he was standing between two great pillars that held up the roof, 
he prayed, lifting his sightless eyes to God : 

" O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me only this 
once." 

Then he clasped his arms around the pillars on either side of him, and 
bowing himself with all his might, saying, 

"Let me die with the Philistines," he drew the great pillars with him, 
and the house fell with all that were upon it, on all that were within it. So 
died Samson who judged Israel twenty years, yet a woman, Deborah, who 
was also one of the judges in Israel, was stronger than he, for the Lord 
looketh on the heart. 




THE DEATH OF SAMSON. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

RUTH. 

In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, there was a famine in the 
land, and an Israelite, who lived in Bethlehem, took his wife and his two sons 
into Moab where there was food. After a while the Israelite died, and the 
two sons married women of Moab. 

After two years the sons died also, and their mother, Naomi, longed for 
her home in Bethlehem, for there was no longer a famine there. So she took 
Ruth and Orpah, her sons' wives, and started on the journey into the land of 
Israel. 

But before they had gone far Naomi said : 

11 Go ! return each to her mother's house; the Lord deal kindly with you, 
as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me." 

She kissed them, and they wept and would not leave her. 

"Turn again, my daughters," she said, "why will ye go with me?" 

And Orpah kissed Naomi, and went back to her own mothers' house, but 
Ruth, whose heart was with Naomi, would not go back. 

"Entreat me not to leave thee," she said, "or to return from following 
after thee, for where thou goest I will go ; and where thou lodgest I will 
lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest 
I will die, and there will I be buried ; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if 
aught but death part thee and me." 

And so they came to Bethlehem, and the old friends of Naomi greeted 
her tenderly, and welcomed her back. It was about the beginning of the 
barley harvest. 

There was a good and great man in Bethlehem named Boaz, and he was 
of the family of Naomi's husband. He had a field of barley where the 
reapers were at work, and Ruth asked Naomi if she should not go and glean 
after the reapers, to get grain, for they were poor. 

Naomi said, " Go, my daughter," and she went. 

When Boaz came out of the town into his field and greeted his reapers, 
he said to his servant having charge of the reapers, 

" What maiden is this ?" and he told him that she was the Moabitish girl 
who had come back with her mother-in-law Naomi. 

(62) 




RUTH GLEANING. 



64 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

Then Boaz spoke very kindly to Ruth, and told her to stay with his 
maidens, and freely drink of the water drawn for them, and Ruth bowed be- 
fore him and asked why he should be so kind to a stranger. He told her that 
he knew all her kindness to her mother-in-law since the death of her husband, 
and how she had left her own family and country to come among strangers, 
and he blessed her, saying, 

" A full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose 
wings thou art come to trust." 

Then he told her to sit down and eat bread with them, and he helped her 
to the parched corn with his own hands, and when they returned to work he 
told his young men to let her glean among the sheaves and reprove her not, 
and to let some handfuls fall purposely for her to glean. When Ruth went 
home Naomi said, 

"Where hast thou gleaned to-day ?" and Ruth told her. Then Naomi 
blessed Boaz, and told Ruth that he was one of their near relatives. 

And so Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz through all the barley and the 
wheat harvest. When all the reaping was done, the grain was threshed on a 
piece of ground made very smooth and level. The sheaves were beaten, and 
then the straw was taken away, and the grain and chaff below it was win- 
nowed. By this the chaff was blown away and only the grain was left. 

When Boaz winnowed his barley Naomi told Ruth to go down to his 
threshing floor and see him for he had a feast for his friends. 

So after the feast Ruth came near to him and said, 

"Thou art our near kinsman," and Boaz said, 

" May the Lord bless thee my daughter," and with many kind words he 
gave her six measures of barley to take to Naomi. 

Boaz remembered that it was the custom in Israel for the nearest 
relative of a man who had died, to take care of the wife who was left, and so 
he went to the gate of Bethlehem where the rulers met to hold their court, 
and spoke to the elders and chief men about Ruth. He also wished them to 
be witnesses that he was going to take Ruth to be his wife. Then the rulers 
all said, 

" We are witnesses," and they prayed that God would bless Ruth and 
make Boaz still richer and greater. 

So Ruth became the honored and beloved wife of Boaz, and they had a 
son named Obed. 

Obed grew up and had a son named Jesse; and Jesse was the father of 
David, King of Israel, who was first a shepherd lad of Bethlehem. 




RUTH AND NAOMI. 



66 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

More than a thousand years after Ruth lived there was born in Bethle- 
hem, of the family of Boaz and Ruth, a little Child, who came, to be the 
Saviour of the world, and the shepherds in the fields, where, perhaps, Ruth 
gleaned, and David kept his sheep, heard the angels tell the good news and 

sing 

" Peace on earth, good will to men." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SAMUEL THE CHILD OF THE TEMPLE. 

The Tabernacle that was built in the wilderness, and was brought into 
Canaan by the priests was set up at Shiloh in the very centre of the land of 
Canaan, and once every year the tribes came to it to worship and offer 
sacrifices. After it had come to Shiloh to stay it was called the temple. 

When Eli was high priest a man named Elkanah came up from Ramah 
to worship, and Hannah his wife went with him. She was a good woman, 
and very sorrowful, because she saw other wives with sons and daughters 
around them, and she had none. Her husband was loving and kind and said: 
"Am I not better to thee than ten sons?" but she prayed to God for a son. 
While she was at Shiloh she prayed in the temple, and Eli saw her lips move, 
though he heard no voice. At first he spoke harshly to her, thinking she had 
been drinking wine, but she told him that she had not taken wine, but was 
praying. 

"I am a woman of sorrowful spirit," she said, "and have poured out my 
soul before the Lord." Then Eli blessed her and said : 

" Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee the prayer that thou hast 
asked of him." Then Hannah was no longer sad. 

Her prayer was answered, and the Lord sent her a little son, and when 
he was old enough, she took him to the temple, for she had promised the 
Lord that the child should be His. So Elkanah came bringing sacrifices, and the 
young child was with them. Hannah told Eli that she was the woman whom 
he saw praying in the temple. 

,, For the child I prayed," she said, "and the Lord has answered my 
prayer. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he lives he shall 







THE CHILD OF THE TEMPLE. 



68 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

be lent to the Lord." Eli was very glad and gave thanks to the Lord, and 
took the little boy to help him in the service of the temple. Every year his 
father and mother came to bring offerings to the Lord, and his mother always 
brought him a little coat which she had made. 

Over it was a linen garment called an ephod, such as the priests wore. 
Eli was an old man, and his sons, though they were priests, were not good 
men, and he believed the Lord had sent him one who would be good, so he 
loved little Samuel as if he were his own. 

One night when Eli was laid down to sleep, and Samuel also, while the 
light was still burning in the golden candlestick before the Ark, Samuel heard 
a voice calling him, and he answered, " Here am I," and ran to see what Eli 
wanted. But Eli said that he had not called, and Samuel lay down again. 
When the voice called again, Samuel went again to Eli's bed, but Eli 
told him to lie down again, for he had not called him. When the voice called 
the third time, Samuel said: " Here am I, for thou didst call me." 

Then Eli told the boy to lie down once more, but if he heard the voice 
again to say, 

"Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." 

And when the voice called again, " Samuel, Samuel," the boy answered, 

"Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." 

Then the Lord told Samuel that the sons of Eli had become very 
wicked, and their father had not kept them from the evil, and therefore He 
could not accept their offerings. 

When Eli asked Samuel what the Lord had said to him, the boy told him all 
and hid nothing from him, and Eli bowed his spirit before the Lord, and said: 

"It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good." 

After this all the people of Israel knew that the Lord had called Samuel 
to be a prophet. And as he grew up the Lord was with him, and he was a 
judge over his people all his life. 

As for Eli and his sons, the word of the Lord soon came true. When 
the Philistines came against the Israelites in battle, the Elders of Israel said : 
"Let us bring the Ark of the Lord out of Shiloh to us, that it may save us out 
of the hand of our enemies." And so they took it from the holy place to the 
camp of Israel. Then the Philistines fell upon the camp and scattered the men 
of Israel. They also took the Ark of God, and the two sons of Eli were 
among the thousands slain. 

Eli, who trembled for the Ark of God, sat outside the city gate, by the 
wayside watching. He was nearly a hundred years old, and his eyes were 



THE MAKING OF A KING. 69 

dim, but when a messenger came with the bad news, he fell backward in his 
seat and died. His heart was broken. 

Where was Samuel ? Perhaps he was praying in the temple for the 
return of the Ark of the Covenant. 

Wherever the Ark went among the Philistines, there went also trouble 
and death. When they put it in the temple of their fish-god Dagon, the 
great idol fell down before it and was broken. And when it was taken to 
another city, the people were smitten with sickness, until at last the Phili- 
stines said : 

" Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it go to its own place." 

After seven months they sent it with gifts of gold to the Israelites. They 
placed it on a new cart drawn by two cows, and the cows, guided by the Lord 
alone, took a straight way into the land of Israel. How glad the people were 
when they looked up from their reaping in the fields, and saw the Ark coming 
safely back to them. The Philistines watched it from afar to see if it would 
be guided of God to its own place or not and then they returned to their city. 

Samuel gathered the people to the Lord after this, and though they had 
sinned greatly, and had gone after the gods of the heathen around them, they 
repented and returned to the faith of their fathers, and were faithful all the 
days of Samuel. He went from year to year on a journey to three cities of 
Israel, and judged the people in those places, but his home was in Ramah, 
the city where he was born, and where Hannah had brought him up for the 
Lord. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE MAKING OF A KING. 

When Samuel was old he made his sons judges in his place, but they 
were not holy men like their father. 

They loved money, and would judge unjustly, if money were given to 
them as a bribe. So the people came to Samuel at Ramah and said, 

11 Give us a king to judge us." 

And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord told him to do as the 
people had asked him to do, for they had not rejected him as judge, but the 
Lord as their King, and now they must learn what kind of a king would reign 



7 o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

over them. So Samuel told them what they must be ready to do for their 
King, for a king was often a hard master, and ruled his people cruelly, 
taking the best of their fields, and their harvests, and their flocks for them- 
selves, and the finest of their sons and daughters to be his servants ; but they 
said, 

"We will have a king over us, that we may be like other nations, and 
that our king may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles." 

When Samuel told these things to the Lord he said, "Make them a 
king," and Samuel sent the people to their own cities. 

Samuel did not choose a king for the people himself, but he waited for 
the Lord to send him the man He had chosen, and the Lord said to him as 
he went to a city called Zeph, to hold a sacrifice, 

" To-morrow about this time I will send thee a man from the land of 
Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel." 

On the next day as Samuel came out to go up to the hill of sacrifice he 
met a tall, noble looking young man, who, with his servant, was looking for 
the lost asses of his father, Kish, the Benjaminite. He had come far, and 
had heard that Samuel, the seer was in that place, and he hoped he would 
tell him where to go for the asses that were lost. 

Samuel knew from the Lord that this was the man God had chosen, so 
he told him to go up with him to the sacrifice, and the next day he would let 
him go. 

He told him that he need not be troubled about the asses, for they were 
found, but the desire of Israel was set upon him. Saul, for that was his 
name, did not understand him until he was invited to feast with thirty of the 
chief men, and Samuel had talked with him upon the house-top. Early the 
next morning they both rose and went out of the city, and while Saul sent his 
servant on before, Samuel anointed Saul with oil, and kissed him saying, that 
the Lord had anointed him to be Captain over his inheritance. 

As a sign that the Lord had done it, he told Saul three things that would 
happen to him on the way home, and charged him to go to Gilgal, where he 
would meet him and sacrifice to the Lord for seven days. As Saul turned 
to leave the prophet, God gave him another heart, and all the signs came to 
pass that day. 

At Mizpah Samuel called all the tribes together, that the man who was 
to be their king, might be chosen in their sight, and when Saul, the son of 
Kish, the Benjaminite was chosen he could not be found; he had hidden from 
the people ; but when they brought him out before them, he was taller than 




mm 



THE SHEPHERD BOY OF BETHLEHEM. 



72 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

any of the people from his shoulders up, and looked a king indeed. For the 
first time in all their history they cried, 

" God save the King !" 

Then Saul went home, and there went with him a body of men whose 
hearts God had touched, while Samuel wrote in a book the order of the 
kingdom and laid it up before the Lord. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE SHEPHERD BOY OF BETHLEHEM. 

After Saul had been king of Israel for a few years, Samuel was deeply 
troubled about him, for he had hoped that he would be as truly a king as he 
looked, but he had a strange and wilful spirit that led him to turn away from 
the counsel of the Lord and follow his own way. 

Samuel had been grieved again and again by Saul's rashness, until at 
last he said to him when he had taken the spoil of the enemy to sacrifice to 
the Lord, 

"To obey is better than sacrifice ; because thou hast rejected the word 
of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king," and he went to 
his house and mourned over Saul, for he had loved him. 

At last the Lord told Samuel to cease from mourning for Saul, for He 
had rejected him, but to fill his horn with oil, and go to Bethlehem where 
Jesse lived, for He had chosen one of the sons of Jesse to be king in place of 
Saul. 

Samuel went to Bethlehem leading a heifer, as the Lord had told him to 
do, that he might hold a sacrifice. He told the elders of the city to make 
ready for the sacrifice, and when he had found the house of Jesse, he called 
him and his sons. Jesse was the grandson of Ruth and Boaz, and owned the 
fields, no doubt, where Ruth gleaned. When Samuel saw Eliab, the son of 
Jesse, he said : 

" Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him," but the Lord said : 

" Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because 
I have refused him, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on 
the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 

Then Jesse called Abinidab, but Samuel said : 



THE SHEPHERD BOY OF BETHLEHEM. 73 

"The Lord hath not chosen this." Then he made Shammah to pass 
before him, but Samuel said : 

''Neither hath the Lord chosen this." 

Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, but Samuel said : 

"The Lord hath not chosen these." 

"Are here all thy children?" said Samuel. 

" There remaineth yet the youngest, and he keepeth the sheep," Jesse 
replied. Then Samuel said: 

"Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither." 

So Jesse sent out into the sheepfolds on the hillsides outside the city to 
bring the lad David in. What did the boy think when he found his father 
and his brothers waiting, with the old prophet in the midst ? What did it 
mean that the eye of the seer was set upon him, as were the eyes of all in the 
house? 

Samuel saw a noble youth, "ruddy, and of a beautiful countenance, and 
goodly to look to." He had been told that he must not look on the outward 
appearance "for the Lord seeth not as man seeth," and so he waited a little 
until the Lord said : 

"Arise, anoint him, for this is he." Then he took the horn of oil, and 
anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the spirit of the Lord came 
upon David from that day forward, and Samuel went back to his house in 
Ramah. 

It may be that his father and his brothers did not understand that the 
boy had been called to be king over Israel, but a new spirit of wisdom, 
and love, and strength came upon David, and though he went back to his 
father's flocks with no thought of being greater than his brothers, he went 
with a new song in his heart which he sang to the little harp he had made 
while watching the sheep. Long after when he was King of Israel, he made* 
in memory of these days the beautiful Psalm to be sung in the temple begin- 
ning, 

" The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE POWER OF A PEBBLE. 

Saul the sullen was still king over Israel, although he had departed from 
the Lord, and in His sight he was no longer a king. He was very gloomy 
and dark in his mind, for he had driven the Lord's spirit away, and his light 
was gone. 

His servants tried to amuse him, and told him of David, the son of Jesse, 
who was a skillful player on the harp, and a brave and handsome youth. So 
Saul sent for David, and David, bringing presents from his father, came to the 
king's house. 

Saul was greatly pleased with David, and asked Jesse to let his son stay 
with him, for when the evil spirit was upon him, if David played upon his 
harp the darkness left him. But this did not last, and after a while David 
went back to his flocks, and Saul forgot him. 

Then the Philistines rose against Israel again. Their camp was on a 
mountain side, and Saul gathered his warriors on the side of another moun- 
tain and there was a valley between them. 

Out of the Philistine camp a giant came one day, Goliath of Gath. He 
talked loud and often in order to terrify the Israelites, asking them to send 
out a man to fight with him, but he was not truly brave, for he had carefully 
covered his great body with armor of brass, so that no spear or sword could 
touch him. He defied Israel every morning and evening for forty days, and 
no one was found who would dare to £0 out alone to fi^ht him. David's 
elder brothers were in camp, and Jesse, their father, called David from the 
flocks to take food to them. He found the army of Israel ready to go into 
battle, but Goliath came out as he had done each day and defied the Israelites, 
who ran in terror at the sight of him. The spirit of David was moved at this, 
and he said: 

"Who is this Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living 
God?" "The man who killeth him," said one, ''the King will enrich him, 
and, will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel." 

Then Eliab, David's eldest brother, spoke sternly to David asking him 
why he had left his sheep to come down and see the battle, and called him 
naughty and proud, but David still talked with the men, for the spirit of the 
(74) 



THE POWER OF A PEBBLE. 75 

Lord was strong within him. When Saul heard of him and sent for him, 
David said : 

''Let no man's heart fail because of him ; thy servant will go and fight 
with the Philistine." 

Saul frowned at David and said : 

"Thou art not able to go against this Philistine ; thou art but a youth, 
and he is a man of war." 

Then David told the king how he had killed both a lion and a bear that 
had come down upon his fathers flocks, and that he could also conquer the 
Philistine. 

"The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and the paw of 
the bear," said David, " He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." 
And Saul said : " Go ! and the Lord be with thee." Then Saul armed David 
with his own armor, but David said : 

"I can not go with these, for I have not proved them," and he put 
them off. 

And this was the way David armed himself to meet the giant. 

He took his staff in hand, and chose five smooth stones from the brook 
and put them in his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand, he drew 
near to the giant. Goliath came on also, his armor-bearer carrying the shield 
before him, but when he saw the youth David, he despised him, for he was 
without armor, or sword or spear, only his staff. 1 

"Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with a staff," said Goliath, and 
then he told him that he would soon give his flesh to the birds and the beasts. 

"Thou comest to me with a sword, and a spear, and a shield," said 
David, " but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God 
of the armies of Israel whom thou hast despised." 

Then the Philistine came down upon little David to destroy him, and 
David ran, not away from him, as the men of Israel had done, but straight 
toward him, taking a pebble from his shepherd's bag as he ran. Quickly 
putting it in the sling, he whirled it in the air once, twice, and then it went swift 
and straight to the mark. It sunk into the forehead of the giant, and he fell 
dead upon his face. Then David ran and stood upon the dead Philistine and 
cut off his head with the giant's great sword, and when the Philistines saw 
that their champion was really dead, they fled, pursued by the shouting hosts 
of Israel. 



76 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

Saul had forgotten the youth who played upon the harp before him, for 
when he sent for him after the battle he said, 

11 Whose son art thou, thou young man ?" and David answered, 
"I am the son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite." 
And Saul took him to live with him from that day. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 

Saul had a son named Jonathan, and he loved David as his own soul. 
He took off his princely robes, even to his sword, and his bow, and his girdle, 
and made David wear them ; and David acted wisely in all that the king gave 
him to do. There was great joy and much feasting over the Death of 
Goliath and the flight of the Philistines, and wherever Saul went, the women 
came out of the cities to meet him, singing and dancing, and the song with 
which they answered one another was, 

" Saul hath slain his thousands, 
And David his tens of thousands." 

Saul did not like this, and an evil spirit of jealousy came upon him, and 
he thought " What can he have more but the kingdom." 

The next day the evil spirit came upon Saul in the house, and David 
played on his harp to quiet him, but Saul hurled a spear at David, hoping to 
fasten him to the wall with it. This he did twice, but the Lord guided 
the spear away from David, just as he guided the pebble to Goliath, and 
he was unhurt. Saul was afraid of David. He was afraid that God was 
preparing him to be king over Israel, so he sent him into battle, hoping he 
would be killed, but the life of David was in the Lord's hand, and no enemy 
could destroy it. 

After a great battle, in which David had been victorious, the evil spirit 
came again upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, 
while David played on the harp. Again he tried to kill David, but the 
spear struck the wall and David slipped away. 




THE POWER OF A PEBBLE. 



7 3 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

It was clear that David could not live near the king, and so he talked 
with Jonathan, his friend, who said, 

"God forbid, thou shalt not die," but David said, 

"Truly there is but a step between me and death." 

Then they made a promise to each other before the Lord that should last 
while they lived. They promised to show "the kindness of the Lord" to 
each other while life should last. 

Jonathan told David that he might go away for three days, and they went 
out into a field together. They feared the anger of Saul when he found 
that David was absent from the feast of the new moon. So Jonathan told 
David to return after three days and hide behind a great rock in the field. 
Then Jonathan said he would come out and shoot three arrows from his bow, 
as if he were shooting at a mark, and he would send his arrow-bearer to pick 
them up. If he should call to the lad, "The arrows are on this side of 
thee," David would know that Saul was not angry, and would not hurt him, 
but if he cried, "The arrows are beyond thee," David would know he was 
in danger and must go away. 

On the second day of the feast, Saul asked why David was not there, 
and Jonathan told him he had asked permission to go away for three days. 
Then Saul was very angry. He blamed his son for loving David, for, as 
Saul's son, Jonathan should be king after his death, but he never would be if 
David lived, and he commanded Jonathan to bring him that he might put him 
to death. When Jonathan asked what evil David had done that he should be 
put to death, Saul cast his spear at his own son. Then Jonathan knew there 
was no hope for David, and left the table in sorrow. 

The next day he went out to the rock in the field with his armor-bearer 
and sent him on before. When he shot an arrow, he cried : 

" The arrow is beyond thee ; make haste ! stay not ! " 

And David, in his hiding place heard it, and knew that he must flee for 
his life. 

Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the lad to take to the town, 
and David came out from his hiding place, and they kissed each other and 
wept together. But at last Jonathan said : 

" Go in peace: as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, 
saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my children and thy 
children forever." 

And David went away to hide from Saul, and Jonathan went back to the 
king's house. 



DAVID THE OUTCAST. 79 

For seven years Saul hunted for David to take his life, and David, often 
hiding in caves in the wilderness, could not see his friend Jonathan, but they 
were faithful in their friendship, and when at last Saul was slain in battle, and 
Jonathan also, David came to mourn over his friend, saying : 

"I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan : very pleasant hast thou 
been unto me ; thy love for me was wonderful, passing the love of women." 



CHAPTER XXII. 
DAVID THE OUTCAST. 

For seven years King Saul hunted David from one end of the land of 
Israel to the other. The evil spirit of jealousy and hate had full possession of 
him, and David, with a few faithful men, was driven from one stronghold to 
another, until he cried, "They gather themselves together; they hide them- 
selves ; they mark my steps when they wait for my soul. What time I am 
afraid I will trust in thee." 

He had escaped again and again from the hand of Saul, and now he was 
down in the desert country by the Dead Sea, hiding among the cliffs and caves 
of Engedi. Saul heard of it and took three thousand men to hunt for him among 
the rocks of the wild goats. He was very tired after climbing the rocks, and 
seeing a cave, he went in to lie down for a little sleep. He did not know 
that David and his men were in the cave hiding in the dark sides of it. Then 
his men whispered to David : 

11 Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee : ' I will deliver thine 
enemy into thine hand that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good to 
thee.' " Then David arose and crept near to Saul, and — did he kill the man 
who had so often tried to kill him ? 

No, he bent down and cut off a part of Saul's robe. Even this seemed 
wrong to David. 

" The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master," he 
said " to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the annointed of the 
Lord," and in this way he kept his servants from harming Saul, and after Saul 
awoke he went out of the cave. 

David also went out of the cave and cried, 

"My Lord the King!" 
5 




THE GARMENT OF SAUL. 



DAVID THE OUTCAST. 81 

And when Saul turned David bowed down to him and asked him why he 
listened to men who said that he wished to harm the king, and then he told 
him how the Lord had given him into his hand in the cave, but he would not 
touch the Lord's annointed to harm him. 

" See, my father," he cried " see the skirt of thy robe in my hand. I have 
not sinned against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it." 

Much more he said, and asked the Lord to Judge between them, and 
Saul's hard heart was moved so that he wept aloud. 

"Is this thy voice, my son David," he said, "Thou art more righteous 
than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil," 
and he made a covenant with David. For though he made no promise to 
spare David's life, he made David promise to spare the life of his children 
when he should be made king. 

But a year was hardly past before the evil spirit was again upon Saul, 
and he went out with three thousand men to hunt for David. Saul's camp 
was on a hill, and David saw where it was. At night he took Abishai, one of 
his warriors, and went down from the cliffs to Saul's camp, where Saul lay 
sleeping in a trench, and the spear stuck in the ground by his pillow, while all 
his men lay around him. Abishai wished to strike him through with the 
spear, but David said, 

" Destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's 
anointed and be guiltless ? The Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come 
to die, or he shall fall in battle and perish ; but take thou now the spear that 
is at his pillow, and the cruse of water, and let us go." 

And they took them and went away. A deep sleep had fallen upon the 
camp of Saul from the Lord, so that no one saw them. 

Then David went up to his stronghold, and from the top of the clift he 
cried to Abner, the captain of Saul's men, and asked why he had not defended 
his Master, and where was the king's spear, and his cruse of water ? 

Then Saul cried as before, 

" Is this thy voice, my son David ?" 

"It is my voice, my lord, O King," said David, and again he plead his 
cause with his old enemy, but who could trust to the repentance of Saul ? 
He cried, 

" I have sinned ; return, my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, 
because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. I have played the iool, 
and erred exceedingly." 



82 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

But David trusted him no more, and went and made friends with a 
Philistine prince that he might live within their borders. 

Samuel the prophet was dead, and there was no one to give counsel to 
the darkened soul of the King when trouble fell upon him. The Philistines 
had come with a great army, but Saul was afraid, for the Lord's spirit was 
not with him. He tried to seek the Lord through the priests, and through 
dreams, but the Lord answered him not. Then he went to a witch by night, 
and asked her to bring up the spirit of Samuel. The witch could not bring 
up Samuel, but the Lord sent him to speak to Saul, and the woman cried out 
with terror when she saw the prophet of the Lord, and knew also that it was 
the King who had called for him. 

"I am sore distressed," said Saul, u and God is departed from me. What 
shall I do?" 

Then Samuel told him plainly that the kingdom was taken from him and 
given to David, and that on the next day he and his sons should fall in battle, 
and the Israelites into the hands of the Philistines. 

Saul, forsaken and despairing, fell to the earth fainting, but was revived 
by the woman, who gave him food so that he went away through the dark to 
the camp of Israel. 

In the battle of the next day the Philistines conquered. The three sons 
of Saul were slain, and Saul himself, when chased by the Philistines, fell upon 
his own sword and died. 

When a messenger brought news of the battle to David he rent his 
clothes for grief, and in the chant of lamentation that he made, he mourned 
for his faithful friend Jonathan, and had no word of blame for his enemy Saul, 
neither did he triumph over him. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
EVERY INCH A KING. 



After Saul's death David came back to live with his own people, for he 
was of the tribe of Judah. He went to Hebron, the old home of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, for the Lord had told him to go there, and the men of his 
tribe came to Hebron and anointed him king. The other tribes did not come, 



EVERY INCH A KING. 83 

for Saul's son and the captain of his host, Abner, were still holding the king- 
dom. But when both were killed by an enemy, then all the other tribes came to 
Hebron and made a league with him, so seven years after Saul's death David 
became king over all Israel. He was then thirty years old and his reign lasted 
forty years. 

Then David began to establish the kingdom. There was a rocky height 
not far from Hebron with a valley all around it that was still held by the 
Jebusites, one of the tribes of Canaan that the Lord said must not be left in 
the land. The city was Jerusalem, and the stronghold was Zion, and close 
by Zion was the mount to which Abraham had once gone to offer up Isaac. 
David wanted this stronghold for the chief city of the kingdom, and so he 
took it, and it became the city of David. He built a beautiful house for him- 
self there, and King Hiram of Tyre sent skilled workmen, and cedar trees, 
and they built a house of cedar for him. But stronger than the wish to have 
a house for himself was the longing to see the Ark of God set within the 
curtains of the Tabernacle in the city of David. It had been in the house of 
Abinadab in Kirjath-Jearim for seventy years, ever since it was sent home 
by the Philistines who captured it. Because the people had grown cold 
toward God, they did not wish to hear the reading of the law, or be led by his 
counsel. Now David called together the flower of all Israel, thirty thousand 
men, and they went to bring the Ark to the city of David. While on the way 
a man who had laid his hand upon the Ark when it was unsteady was smitten 
and died, for no one but the priests and Levites could touch the Ark of God. 
David feared to bring it further, and so he placed it in the house of Obed- 
edom which was near by. It was there three months, and great blessing 
came to the house because of it. When David heard this he went joyfully 
down to bring the Ark to his city, and it was with sacrifices, and shouting, 
and the sound of trumpet that it was brought and set in the Tabernacle that 
had been made ready for it. And so the worship of the Lord was established 
in Jerusalem, which was to be the great altar for the sacrificial worship until 
the sacrifice should be taken away, and the kingdom of Christ established on 
the earth. 

But David was not satisfied. 

"See," he said to Nathan the prophet, "I dwell in a house of cedar, but 
the Ark of God dwelleth within curtains." 

That night the Lord spoke to Nathan and told him what to say to the 
king. He promised to establish the royal house of David, and give final 
peace to the people, and also to build a house for the worship of the Lord, 



84 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

but he said that David's son, who should be king after him, should build a 
house to his name, and of him the Lord said, "I will be his Father, and he 
shall be my son." 

Then King David went in to the Tabernacle and thanked the Lord for 
His promise to him and to his son, and asked His blessing upon them. 
Though he reigned forty years, he never forgot that his work was not to build 
the temple of the Lord, but to prepare for it. So he subdued enemies, built 
cities, made leagues with friendly nations, gathered much wealth of wood, and 
stone, and gold, and silver and precious stones for the house of the Lord, and 
trained choirs of singers for the service. He also kept his heart open toward 
the Lord, so that he was able to write some wonderful poems that were set to 
music and sung by the temple choirs. We call them the Psalms of David. 

Though David had grown rich and great, he did not forget his promise 
to Jonathan. He called Ziba, who had been Saul's servant and said to him, 

"Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness 
of God to him ?" 

Then Ziba told him of a man who was lame in both his feet, who was the 
son of Jonathan. David sent for him, and gave him all the land of Saul, and 
a place was made for him at the king's table among his own sons, and it was 
his while he lived. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

david's sin. 

The army of Israel was at war with the Ammonites, and Joab was the 
chief captain. David did not go out with the army, but stayed in his house in 
Jerusalem. One evening he was walking on the flat roof of his house, as the 
people of that country always do, and he saw a little way off a very beautiful 
woman. He sent a servant to ask who she was, and found she was the wife 
of Uriah who was in the army with Joab, fighting the Ammonites. Then a 
great temptation was set before David, and instead of going to the Lord to 
be saved from it, he sent to Joab, asking him to send him Uriah, the Hittite. 
So Uriah came, and David talked kindly with him, and found him a good and 
faithful man. When he went back to Joab he took a letter from David, who 
asked that he be set in the front of the battle. So Joab placed him there, 
and when the two armies met Uriah was killed, and Joab sent a messenger to 



DAVID'S SIN. 85 

tell David. After her mourning was ended, Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, 
became the wife of David, but the Lord was displeased with David. He also 
knew David's heart and how to deal with him, so he sent Nathan the prophet 
to him. 

" There were two men in one city," said Nathan, "one of them rich and 
the other poor. The rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man 
had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished 
up; and it grew together with him and with his children : it did eat of his own 
meat and drink of his own cup, and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a 
daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to 
take of his own flock to dress for the wayfaring man that was come to him, 
but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to 
him." 

David was very angry at the man who could do such a cruel thing, and 
he said to Nathan, 

"The man that hath done this thing shall surely die ; and he shall restore 
the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." 

Then Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man," and he told him how 
greatly the Lord had blessed him in making him King over Israel, and in deliv- 
ering him from the hand of Saul, and how he had slain a faithful servant and 
taken his wife for himself; therefore evil would befall him. 

David said, "I have sinned against the Lord," and the Lord saw that his 
repentance was real, and forgave the sin, but that David might never forget 
and sin again, the Lord took the little child that was born to him and to 
Bathsheba. While it was sick David fasted and lay all night upon the earth, 
and would not rise to taste food. This he did for seven days while the little 
child was sick, but when they told him that his child was dead he arose and 
bathed and dressed himself and went to the house of the Lord to worship, and 
returned to take his food. Then his servants wondered at it, and replied, 

" While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell 
whether God will be gracious unto me that the child may live. But now he is 
dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to 
him, but he shall not return to me." 

After this another child was born to Bathsheba, and they named him 
Solomon, which means " Peaceable." 

And David wrote a prayer of repentance for his sin. It is the fifty-first 
Psalm, and has been the prayer of penitent souls for nearly three thousand 
years. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
david's sorrow. 

David had a very beautiful son named Absalom. From the crown of his 
head to the soles of his feet there was no fault to be seen in him. His hair 
was thick and long, and his beauty was much talked of through all Israel. 
But the Lord who looks upon the heart saw that the heart of Absalom was 
wicked and false. He killed his brother Amnon, and then fled to another 
country and stayed three years. When he returned he tried to see his father, 
but David would not see him for two years. Then Absalom forced Joab to 
bring him to the king's house by setting Joab's barley field on fire. He was false 
as well as handsome, and won his father's heart by pretending to be humble. 

After this Absalom began to live more like a king than a prince. He 
had fifty men to run before his chariot when he rode, and he stood in the city 
gates and talked with the men who came to see the king about their rights. 
He told them that if he were ruler over the land every man should have all 
that he wanted, and deceived many by a false show of friendship. 

Then he asked the king if he could go to Hebron to pay a vow to the 
Lord by offering sacrifice there, and David told him to go in peace, and he 
went. But he had cruelly deceived his father. He had sent spies through 
all the land to persuade them to join him at Hebron and make him king. He 
also took two hundred men out of Jerusalem to help him, and one of them 
was David's counsellor. They had arranged to have all the people, as soon 
as they heard anywhere the sound of the trumpet, to cry, 

"Absalom is king in Hebron." 

Then it came to the ears of David that his people had been led away by 
deceit to follow Absalom, and David, who had been fearless before Goliath 
and before great armies of other nations, was afraid. His heart was broken 
at the treachery of his son, and he said to his servants, 

<4 Arise, and let us flee ; make haste and go, for fear Absalom may come 
and fight against the city with the sword." 

His servants were ready to fight for him, but he fled in haste over the 
brook Kedron and went toward the wilderness, with all of the people of the 
city with him, until there was a great multitude, and in the midst the priests 
and the Levites bearing the Ark of God, but when David saw this he said, 




SAUL ATTEMPTS THE LIFE OF DAVID. 



88 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

" Carry back the Ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the 
eyes of the Lord He will bring me again. Let Him do to me as seemeth 
good to Him." 

So the priests and the Levites returned to the city with the Ark of God. 

It was a sad procession that went over the Mount of Olives led by 
David, weeping as he went, with his head covered and his feet bare. Some 
enemies of the house of Saul came out and troubled him by the way, but 
there was no anger in the heart of David toward any. He believed the 
hand of the Lord was upon him, and he said, 

"It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction." 

Absalom came to Jerusalem, and while he was asking his chief coun- 
sellor what to do, he was persuaded by a friend of David, who had stayed 
behind, to wait until he had gathered a larger army before he followed after 
David. This gave him time to send word to David to cross over Jordan 
before Absalom should overtake him. The chief counsellor, when he saw 
that his advice was not followed, went to his own house and hanged him- 
self, for he knew that the Lord was bringing his counsel to naught. 

After David had passed over into Gilead the people of that land brought 
food, and dishes, and beds to the sorrowful king and his tired people, and 
they were cared for in the city of Mahanaim. Then Joab, the captain, 
gathered the men together to go and meet Absalom and his army, and as 
they passed out of the city David stood in the gate and charged all the cap- 
tains as they passed, saying 

" Deal gently, for my sake, with the young man, even with Absalom." 

So they went out to battle, and it was in a wood. God had given David's 
army the victory, and twenty thousand men of Absalom's army were slain. 
Absalom, who rode on a mule, was caught by his long thick hair in the 
branches of an oak tree, and the mule went away and left him hanging there. 

A man ran and told Joab that he had seen Absalom hanging in an oak. 

"Why didst thou not smite him there ?" said Joab. 

The man said he would not have done it for a thousand shekels of 
silver, because David had charged them all not to touch the young man 
Absalom. 

But Joab turned away, and when he had found Absalom in the oak, he, 
with the ten young men who were with him, killed Absalom, and they buried 
him in the wood. 

Then Joab sent two messengers to carry news of the victory to the king, 
who sat between the city gates, while a watchman stood over the gates on the 







THE DEATH OF ABSALOM. 



9 o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

city wall. When the watchmen saw the two men running, one after the other, 
he cried out and told the king. The first man cried as he came, "All is well," 
but when the king said, "Is the young man Absalom safe ?" he could not 
answer, and when the second messenger cried, "Tidings, my lord, the king," 
again David asked, 

" Is the young man Absalom safe ?" 

The enemies of my lord the king and all that rise against thee to do thee 
hurt be as that young man," said the messenger. 

Then the king went up to the room over the city gate and wept, and as 
he went he cried, 

" O my son Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died 
for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son !" 

The people who had come back joyful because the enemy had been con- 
quered were distressed by the grief of the king, so that Joab persuaded 
David to come down to the gate and meet the people. 

After this those who were left of the followers of Absalom begged the 
king to come back to Jerusalem, and so he came, and thousands came to 
meet him. He had only forgiving words for those who had injured him, and 
for Barzillai and the men of Gilead who had fed them and shown them great 
kindness in the darkest hour of the king's life, and who came a little way on 
the journey with them, he had grateful words and blessings. 

And so the king came to his own again. He was now getting to be an 
old man, and the love of his people made his last days blessed. 

His warriors said, "Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that 
thou quench not the light of Israel." 

Once he sinned against the Lord by numbering his people. He wanted 
to know how many men in his kingdom could bear arms in battle, and he for- 
got that victory over the enemy was not with the many or the few, but with 
the Lord, who is the strength of his people. When he saw that he had done 
wrong he confessed it and begged for forgiveness, but a pestilence spread 
over all the land, and came near to Jerusalem, and the angel was stayed by 
the Lord's hand just over the threshing floor of Araunah. This was the 
broad flat top of Mount Moriah where long before Abraham had built an 
altar on which to offer Isaac. 

When David saw the angel he said, 

" I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done ? Let 
Thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house." 

Then the prophet Gad said, " Go up, rear an altar to the Lord in the 




DAVID MOURNING FOR ABSALOM. 



92 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

threshing-floor of Araunah," and David went as the Lord commanded. 

When they reached the mount Araunah offered David the piece of 
ground with the oxen for a sacrifice, but he would not take them as a gift. 

" But I will surely buy it of thee at a price," said David, " neither will I 
offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that which doth cost me 
nothing." 

So he bought the piece of ground and paid for it six hundred shekels of 
gold. Twice had the Lord blessed this spot with a miracle of salvation, 
and twice an altar had been built there, and looking upon it, David said, 

"This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offer- 
ing for Israel," and he prepared to build there the temple of Solomon, — the 
altar of the world. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE BUILDING OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE. 

The time was near when David must leave his people and go to his 
God, and his chief thought was about the house of the Lord that he had 
longed to build, that the Ark of God might be at rest, and that the people 
might have a place of worship for all time to come. He knew that his son 
Solomon was to build the temple, but he was still young, and David made 
ready as far as he could for the building of the house. There were men at 
work in the quarries, cutting great stones, and there were men in the forests 
of Lebanon cutting and hewing cedars, and others gathering iron and brass, 
and gold, and silver for the treasury of David. He also spent much time 
dividing the sons of Levi into companies, so that they could in turn serve with 
the priests in the temple, and ordering the times and manner of service, for 
he believed that this temple would be a house of prayer for all nations. David 
had been a man of war, for he had been called to destroy idol worship in the 
land of Canaan, and to make it the land of Israel, in which the one true God 
should be worshipped forever, but Solomon's reign was to be one of peace, 
and the Lord chose a man of peace to build his house. 

David had another son, Adonijah, who tried to make himself king as 
Absalom did, but David heard of it, and had Solomon proclaimed king before 



THE BUILDING OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE. 93 

his own death, lest trouble should arise after. When Adonijah heard the 
shouts of the people, and the sound of the trumpets he was afraid, and 
expected Solomon would kill him, but Solomon said if he would only show 
himself a good man no harm should come to him. 

The last things that David did were to call his princes and chief men 
together and tell them that the Lord had promised many years before, that 
Solomon should build the house of the Lord during his reign ; and also that 
his children's children should rule over Israel, and he begged them to keep 
the Lord's commandments, that they might keep the good land that had been 
given them. 

He also charged Solomon before them all to serve God with all his heart, 
but if he failed to do so he would be cast off forever. 

David gave Solomon all the plans and patterns for the house of the Lord, 
as the Lord had given them to him ; also the gold and silver stored up for 
time of building. He also told the people, when he had called them together, 
what he had stored for the work of the temple, and asked them who were 
willing to give also. Then the people brought gifts, as they did when the 
Tabernacle was built, and gave them to the Lord. David led them in a great 
thanksgiving service, and they offered three thousand sacrifices. 

Solomon was again anointed king in the presence of all Israel, and took 
the throne of David ; and David died, honored and loved by his people, and 
he was buried in his own city. 

When Solomon went to Gibeon to sacrifice the Lord came to him in a 
dream and said, 

"Ask what I shall give thee." 

Solomon was wiser than all the sons of David, and yet -he did not feel 
himself to be so. He said, 

" I am but a little child ; I know not how to go out or come in, and thy 
servant is in the midst of a great people that cannot be numbered. Give 
therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may 
discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great a 
people." 

And the Lord said, 

" Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long 
life, neither riches, nor the life of thine enemies, lo, I have given thee a wise 
and understanding heart, and I have also given thee that which thou hast not 
asked — both riches and honor ; and if thou wilt walk in my ways as thy father 
David did, then I will lengthen thy days." 



94 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

The Lord was true to his word. Solomon had wisdom beyond all the 
old and the learned men of his kingdom, and many came to him for counsel 
who were not of Israel, for he was famous among the nations. Some of these 
nations wished to be ruled by him, and brought him many precious things as 
gifts ; they had been conquered by David, and now they wished to be ruled 
by Solomon. He had thousands of servants and he knew how to direct their 
work. Away up in the mountains of Lebanon they worked with the servants 
of Hiram, King of Tyre, getting the cedar timbers ready for the temple, 
while Hiram's artisans in gold, and silver, and brass, and fine linen came to 
Jerusalem to work on the temple, and Solomon sent Hiram wheat, and olive 
oil, and wine. So wise were the workers in stone and wood that when the 
temple was built there was no sound of a hammer or any tool heard on 
Mount Moriah. Each stone was ready to fit into its place, and each piece 
of wood to fit another. 

The house was not like any that we have ever seen. It was not large, 
but it was very precious. The cedar boards that lined the walls were carved 
in flower patterns, and covered with gold. The floor also was covered with 
gold. He divided the temple in two parts, as the Tabernacle had been, with 
a rich curtain of blue and purple and crimson. The innermost room was 
called the most holy place, and was for the Ark, and its walls were beautiful 
with cherubim, and palm trees, and flowers, overlaid with gold, as was the 
floor also. Within this most holy place stood two cherubim fifteen feet high. 
They were of olive wood covered with gold, and they stood with wings spread 
forth so that they touched each other, and also touched the wall on either 
side, and their wings overshadowed the mercy seat where the Ark of the 
Lord was to rest. All the carvings upon wood were covered with gold, and 
precious stones were set among them for light and beauty. 

Solomon's workmen made two great pillars of brass to stand before the 
house, and a great brass altar for the burnt offerings. They also made ten 
basins of brass that were set upon wheels, and one very great one called the 
"sea" which stood on twelve brass oxen. 

They also made many things for the use of the temple — candlesticks, 
and spoons, and censers all of pure gold, and there was also a golden altar 
and a golden table. 

Solomon was seven years building the house of the Lord, and when it 
was finished, and its outer courts made ready, he called all the elders and 
chief men of Israel together to carry the Ark of God to its place. So the 
Ark, borne by the priests, and holding the tables of the law, was carried into 



THE BUILDING OF A GOLDEN HOUSE. 95 

the most holy place, and set under the wings of the cherubim. After the 
priests came out a cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could 
not go in. It was the glory of the presence of the Lord. 

Then Solomon stood before all the people and gave thanks to God and 
asked him to take the temple for his own house to dwell in, and kneeling 
down, he prayed that wherever the children of Israel might be, at home, or 
captives in a strange land, that the Lord would hear them when they prayed 
toward his house, and that all prayer offered in it might be heard and answered. 

Then fire from heaven fell upon the great altar, and the sacrifice was 
consumed, and all over the great pavement of the court the people bowed 
and worshipped the Lord, saying, "For He is good, and His mercy endureth 
forever.' ' 

There were offerings and feasting for fourteen days, and then the people 
went to their homes to think of the wonderful things they had seen. And 
there were sacrifices offered morning and evening each day, on the Sabbath, 
and at the three great feasts of the year — the feast of the passover, the feast 
of the harvest, and the feast of tabernacles. 

Solomon also built a wonderful house for himself, and another called the 
" house of the forest of Lebanon," where he kept his armor. The roof was up- 
held by cedars of Lebanon, standing like mighty pillars beneath it. So famous 
did his work and his wisdom become that a queen from a distant land called 
Sheba came to visit him. She came with a caravan of servants and camels 
bringing costly presents of spices, and gold, and precious stones. She asked 
him many things that she had longed to know, and he answered all her 
questions, and told her strange and wonderful things, so that after she had 
seen all his palace, and his servants, and the service of his table, and the 
beautiful ascent by which he went up to the temple, she said that the half had 
never been told her in her own country. They exchanged costly presents, 
and she went back to her own land. 

Solomon had many ships upon the sea that brought riches from every 
land. He learned much of the world in this way, and as he grew older and 
from his throne of gold and ivory judged his people, he dropped many wise 
sayings that were written in a book by the scribes and are now called the 
"Proverbs of Solomon." 

But in Solomon's latter days his wives, who were daughters of heathen 
kings, turned his heart from the Lord. When his father sinned he repented 
at once, and his heart never turned to idols, but with all his wisdom, Solomon 
was weak of will, and built temples for his wives to worship idols in. 




THE QUEEN OF SHEBA BEFORE SOLOMON. 



ELIJAH THE GREAT HEART OF ISRAEL. 97 

The Lord had made a promise to David that his sons should inherit the 
throne, and He kept the promise, but he allowed the kingdom to be divided. 
The two tribes who lived near to Jerusalem — Judah and Benjamin — were left 
to Solomon's son Rehoboam, but the ten tribes chose a man named Jero- 
boam to be their king. The men of Rehoboam, led by their king, went out 
to fight with the ten tribes, but the Lord would not let them. He spoke to 
them through a prophet and they went home. 

So now there were two kings in Israel, and Rehoboam's kingdom was 
called the kingdom of Judah, and that of Jeroboam was called the kingdom 
of Israel ; but after the kingdom was divided no kings ever reigned who 
could be compared with David and Solomon. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ELIJAH THE GREAT HEART OF ISRAEL. 

During the reign of Jehoshaphat, fourth king of Judah, and Ahab, sixth 
king of Israel, after the division of the kingdom, there came out of Gilead 
Elijah, a prophet of the Lord. Two of the kings of Judah, and all of the 
kings of Israel had been wicked men, and the Lord sent Elijah to Ahab, 
king of Israel, to tell him that there should be no rain for years in the land 
of Israel, and then only as Elijah should ask for it. Ahab was more wicked 
than the kings that reigned before him, and had built a temple for the god 
Baal in Samaria. 

Because he would seek to destroy Elijah, the Lord told His prophet 
to go to the brook Cherith that ran into the Jordan, and there He would take 
care of him. "Thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the 
ravens to feed thee there," said the Lord. 

And so it was. Morning and evening the ravens came bringing bread 
and meat, and the brook brought him water out of the rock, but as there was 
no rain, the brook at last dried up, and there was a great famine. 

Then Elijah was told to go to Zarephath, for a woman there had been 

told to feed him, and he went at once. As he came near the city gate he saw 

a woman gathering sticks, and he asked her to bring him a cup of water 

and a little bread. She told him that she had but a handful of meal in a 
6 



98 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and she was going to bake it for herself and 
son, that they might eat it and die. 

Then Elijah said, " Fear not ; go and do as thou hast said, but make me 
thereof a little cake first, and after that make for thee and thy son, for thus 
saith the Lord God of Israel, 'The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither 
shall the cruse of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the 
earth.'" 

She believed Elijah, and did as he commanded, and they ate for a whole 
year, and the meal and the oil lasted all that time. 

After this the woman's son grew very sick, so very sick that he appeared 
to be dead, and the woman cried to the prophet in her distress, 

" O thou man of God, art thou come unto me to call my sin to remem- 
brance and to slay my son ?" 

Then he said, " Give me thy son," and he took him up to his own room 
and laid him upon his bed and prayed over him. Then J^e stretched himself 
upon the child three times and cried, 

"O Lord my God, I pray Thee let this child's soul come unto him 
again ! " 

And God heard Elijah, and the soul of the child came to him again, and 
he revived. 

Then he gave the boy to his happy and grateful mother, saying, " See, 
thy son liveth." 

In the third year of the famine the Lord said to Elijah, 

"Go, show thyself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth." 

As Elijah went he met a good man named Obadiah, who was governor 
of the king's house. This man worshipped the Lord, and when Ahab's 
wicked w T ife, Jezebel, tried to kill all the Lord's prophets he hid a hundred 
of them in two caves and kept them alive with bread and water. He was 
seeking grass and water for the king's horses, and when he saw Elijah he 
fell on his face and said, 

" Art thou my Lord Elijah ? " 

" I am," said Elijah, "go, tell thy lord, ( Behold, Elijah is here.' " 

Obadiah was in distress at this command, for he knew that the king 
would kill Elijah if he found him, and he could not think that Elijah would be 
brave enough to meet the king, or he thought perhaps the spirit of the Lord 
would carry him away, and he alone would have to meet the anger of the king. 

"As the Lord of hosts liveth," said Elijah, "I will surely show myself 
unto him to-day." 



ELIJAH THE GREAT HEART OF ISRAEL. 99 

So Obadiah told Ahab, and Ahab went to meet Elijah, and said to him, 

" Art thou he that troubleth Israel ?" 

"I have not troubled Israel," he said, "but thou and thy father's house, 
in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast 
followed Baalim." 

Then he told Ahab to call all Israel to Mount Carmel which overlooks 
the sea, and to bring there also the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, 
and the four hundred prophets of the groves. 

So the king called them together, and Elijah cried to the people, 

" How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, follow 
Him ; but if Baal, follow him. 

And the people, afraid of the king and his wicked wife, answered not a 
word. 

"I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord," said Elijah, "but Baal's 
prophets are four hundred and fifty men." And then he told the people how 
it could be proven which was true — the God of Israel, or Baal. 

He told the prophets of Baal to make an altar and place wood and a sacri- 
fice upon it, and he also would do the same, and they should call upon Baal, 
and he would call on the name of the Lord, and " the God that answereth by 
fire, let him be God." 

This the priests of Baal were willing to do, and they cried around their 
altar from morning until night, " O Baal, hear us," but there was no voice, 
and no answer by fire. 

Elijah watched and waited, sometimes telling them that perhaps their 
god was asleep, and could be waked ; or that he had gone on a journey, or 
was talking with somebody, and then they became wild and leaped upon 
the altar and cut themselves with knives. 

After many hours Elijah called the people to him, and he repaired a 
broken altar of the Lord that stood there with twelve stones for the twelve 
tribes of Israel, and made a trench all around it. Then he placed wood on 
the altar and told the people to pour four barrels of water over the sacrifice. 
This they did three times, and the water ran down and filled the trench 
around the altar, and the people saw that Elijah could not by any means make 
a fire there. 

Then, as it was the hour of the evening sacrifice in the temple, Elijah 
knelt by his altar with his face toward Jerusalem, and prayed to his God that 
He would hear him, and show the people that they were called from the wor- 
ship of idols to the service of the living God. 



ioo CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

What a wonderful sight was that, when fire fell from heaven and burnt 
up the sacrifice, and the wood, and the altar, and even the water in the trench 
around the altar ! 

And the people all fell on their faces at the sight, and cried, 

" The Lord He is the God ! The Lord He is the God !" Then Elijah 
told them to take the prophets of Baal and destroy them, and they did so. 

"There is a sound of abundance of rain !" said Elijah to the king, and 
then he went to the very top of Carmel, and threw himself upon the earth, 
hiding his face between his knees, while he sent his servant to look toward 
the sea, and watch for the coming of the rain. 

This the servant did seven times, each time coming to his master and 
saying, " There is nothing," but the prophet told him to look seven times 
more, and when he came back the seventh time he said, 

" Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand." 

Then he sent his servant to Ahab, saying, 

" Prepare thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not." 

The little cloud grew to be a great one, and filled all the sky until it was 
black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And as Ahab rode 
in his chariot, Elijah, who was strong with the spirit of the Lord and glad 
for His great victory over sin, ran before the chariot to the gates of the city. 

Jezebel the queen was furious when she heard that the priests had been 
destroyed. She sent word to Elijah that he would be treated the same way 
on the morrow, and so Elijah fled for his life, and leaving his servant in 
Beer-Sheba on the southern border of Israel, he went a day's journey into 
the wilderness. There he sat down under a juniper tree, and for the first 
time his heart grew weak within him. 

"It is enough," he said, " Now, O Lord, take away my life, for am I not 
better than my fathers." 

Perhaps he was discouraged because he was tired «and hungry, for he 
fell asleep, and when he awoke it was because an angel touched him, say- 
ing, " Arise and eat," and he looked, and there was a cake just baked on the 
hot coals, and a bottle of water close beside him. So he ate and drank, but 
he was not yet rested, and he fell asleep again. The angel waked him the 
second time telling him to eat and drink, for the journey was too great for him. 
Then he ate and drank again, and went on the strength of that food 
forty days and forty nights, till he came to Horeb, the mount of God, where 
the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, and there he lodged in a cave. 




ELIJAH AND THE ANGEL. 



io2 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

He was still gloomy and discouraged, and when the Lord said, " What doest 
thou here, Elijah ?" he said, 

" I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children 
of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy 
prophets with the sword, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to 
take it." 

Then the Lord told him to go out and stand on the mount before the 
Lord, and he passed by. There was a great wind that split the mountains, 
and broke the great rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after 
the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake ; and after 
the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire ; and after the fire a 
still, small voice. 

When Elijah heard that, he wrapped his face in his mantle and stood at 
the door of the cave, and the Lord asked again, " What doest thou here, 
Elijah ?" and Elijah answered him just as he did before, 

Then the Lord told him to go back and anoint a new king over Syria, 
also a new king over Israel, and Elisha to be prophet in his place. 

Elijah went, and he found Elisha ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen. 
He cast his mantle over Elisha, and Elisha followed him and became his 
servant. 

When Elijah came back to his own country he found there had been war 
between Israel and Syria, and Ahab had grown hard of heart again. He and 
his wicked wife Jezebel had taken the vineyard of Naboth away from him 
because Ahab wanted it for a garden, and they had caused the death of 
Naboth, so when Elijah came he found Ahab in the vineyard, and said, 

" Hast thou killed and also taken possession ?" and he told him that he 
should die where Naboth died. 

" Hast thou found me, O mine enemy !" cried the king. 

" I have found thee," answered Elijah, and he spoke to him the word of 
the Lord, that he should be destroyed out of Israel with his whole family. 

Then Ahab repented, and the Lord spared his life two years, but later his 
wife Jezebel came to a dreadful end, with the seventy sons of Ahab. 

When the time came for the Lord to take his servant to himself, Elijah 
wished to be alone, but Elisha his servant would not leave him. He followed 
his master from one town to another until they came to the river Jordan. 
Then Elijah took off his mantle, and folding it, struck the waters and they 
were divided, so that they went over on dry ground. Then Ehjah said, 




ELIJAH AND THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. 



104 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

"Ask what I shall do for thee," and Elisha prayed that a double portion of 
his Master's spirit might rest upon him. 

" If thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee," he 
said, "but if not, it shall not be so." 

And as they went there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, 
parting them from each other, and Elijah went up in a whirwind to heaven. 
Now Elisha wished his master to know that he saw him, so he cried, 

" My father, my father ! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof! " 
and he saw him no more. 

Then he took Elijah's mantle that fell from him, and struck the waters 
of Jordan again, and they parted, and he went over, and he knew that the 
power of the old prophet's spirit had been given to him. 

Fifty young men, sons of the prophets, saw him return, and they said, 

"The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha," and they bowed themselves to 
the ground before him. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE LITTLE CHAMBER ON THE WALL. 

Elisha did many wonderful things* in the strength of the spirit that Elijah's 
God gave him. He changed the waters of Jericho, so that they were no 
longer poisonous, by casting salt in the spring. 

He brought water for the thirsty armies of three kings who had gathered 
to battle, by telling them to dig ditches in a valley of Edom, and watch for 
the water to come, without wind or rain. When the morning dawned the 
valley was full of running water. 

He helped a poor widow to pay a debt and take care of her two sons by 
telling her to borrow empty pots and pans of all her neighbors, and pour into 
them her one little pot of oil. The oil increased until all the pots and pans 
were full, and she had plenty to sell. 

He saved the sons of the prophets from death by casting meal into the 
pot when a poisonous nut had been mingled with the food, and he fed a 
hundred people with the bread that was brought as a portion for himself. 

But the most beautiful story in the life of Elisha is that of the Shun-amite 
mother and her son. The mother was a noble lady of Shun-em, who 




THE FEEDING OF ELIJAH. 



106 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

believed in God, and in the good man who passed her house so often, and 
she said to her husband, 

"Let us make for him a little chamber on the wall." And so they did, 
and when Elisha came again he lodged there. He was grateful to these kind 
people, and asked the woman what he should do for her — if she would ask 
anything of the king, but she only said, 

" I dwell among mine own people." 

Then the prophet, knowing that she had no child, promised that she 
should have a son, and though it was hard to believe, the little son was sent 
to her, and she was very happy. But one day. when he went out in the field 
where his father and his men were reaping, he cried out, "My head, my 
head !" and they carried him in to his mother. She held him in her arms 
until noon, and then he died and she laid him in the prophet's chamber. 
Perhaps the heat of the harvest time had been too great for one so young. 
Did the mother cry out and call her husband ? No, she called for a servant 
and a donkey, and rode as fast as she could to Mount Carmel where Elisha 
was. His servant saw her coming, and Elisha sent him to meet her and ask 
if it was well with her and her husband and her child, and she said, 

"It is well," though her heart was breaking. 

"Did I ask a son of my lord?" she said as she came to Elisha and fell 
at his feet. Then he knew that the child was ill or dead, and he would have 
sent his servant to lay his staff on the child, but the mother cried, 

"As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee," and 
he arose and followed her. 

When he came to the Shun-amite's house he went into his little room 
where the dead child lay upon his bed, and, shutting the door, prayed to the 
Lord. Then he stretched himself upon the child, and breathed upon him 
until life began to creep back into the little cold body, and when he had done 
this twice the child opened his eyes. Then Elisha called the mother, and 
when she had fallen at his feet in grateful joy, she took up her child and went 
out. 




ELIJAH RAISES THE WIDOW'S SON, 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A LITTLE MAID OF ISRAEL. 

There was war almost all the time between Israel and Syria. A band of 
Syrians from Damascus would often come into a village of Israel and take 
the people away for slaves. One little girl who was carried off by the 
Syrians became a slave in the house of a Syrian general called Naaman, and 
was a maid to Naaman's wife. 

Naaman was a great man, and beloved by all, but he had a disease that 
could never be cured. It was leprosy. He could go about, but he could not 
touch others without giving them the disease which turns the skin white and 
dead, and finally eats the flesh away. 

The little maid said to her mistress one day, 

"Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he 
would recover him of his leprosy." 

When this Was told to Naaman he talked with the kinor w ho sent him to 
the king of Israel with a letter, but the king of Israel was angry. 

"Am I God to kill and make alive, that this man doth send unto me to 
recover a man of his leprosy?" he cried, but when Elisha heard of it he said, 

"Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in 
Israel." 

So Naaman came with his horses and chariot to Elisha's house, but the 
prophet did not even come to the door, but sent his servant with this 
message, 

" Go wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, 
and thou shalt be clean." 

But Naaman went away in a rage. He expected Elisha to come out, 
and that there would be a fine scene while he called on the name of God, 
waved his hand over the leprous spots, and made a cure. 

"Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the 
waters of Israel ? May I not wash in them and be clean ?" he said. 

Then some of his servants came near to him and said, 

" My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst 
thou not have done it? How much rather, then, when he saith to thee, 'Wash 

and be clean.' 

(108) 



THE TWO BOY KINGS. 109 

Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, and his 
flesh became like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 

After this he, with all that were with him, went humbly back to Elisha 
and said, 

" Now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." And 
he urged the prophet to take gifts from him, but he would not. 

But Naaman begged of Elisha two mule-loads of earth to take to his 
own country. He wanted to build an altar upon it to worship the God of 
Israel, and he thought it must stand on the soil of Israel. 

Did Naaman ever send the little maid of Israel to her home ? We do 
not know, but surely he was kind to her in some way. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE TWO BOY KINGS. 

There were many kings over Israel from the days of Solomon until the 
time when they were carried away captives to Babylon. The kingdom was 
divided soon after Solomon's death, and a king reigned in Jerusalem over the 
kingdom of Judah, and another in Samaria over the kingdom of Israel. 
There were a few kings who tried to follow that which was right, but the most 
of them were men who were given to idolatry, and who did not help the 
people to remember the true God. The Lord sent them prophets to remind 
them of Him, but they were often driven away or ill treated. There were a 
few good kings of Judah, such as Asa and Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah, and 
among them were two who became kings when they were very young. 

When Ahaziah, King of Judah, was killed, his mother, who was a wicked 
woman, killed all his sons, that she herself might be queen. All but a baby 
boy who was hidden w r ith his nurse in the temple, and tenderly cared for by 
the good high priest and his wife for six years. Then when he was seven 
years old the priests and the Levites brought out little Joash and anointed 
him king. They formed a guard all about him, and when the high priest had 
crowned him there was a great cry around the temple of "God save the 
King." 

The old queen heard this and came to see what it meant. When she 



no CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

saw the little Joash standing by a pillar with a crown on his head she cried 
out that the people were plotting against her. 

The people did by her as she had done by her grandsons — they took her 
life. 

Then there was great rejoicing. The house of Baal was torn down, and 
the Lord's gold and silver brought back to the temple, and the good high 
priest began the worship of God in the temple after the manner of former 
days. 

When Joash was old enough to understand he longed to make the temple 
beautiful again, for it was falling into decay, so he called for money through- 
out his kingdom. Everyone was asked to drop a silver piece in the chest 
that was set at the temple door, and more than enough was brought to 
re-build the temple, and while the high priest lived the king worshipped there 
with all the princes of Judah, but as soon as he died they went back to idol 
worship, and killed the new high priest in the court of the temple because he 
told them that the Lord would bring great trouble upon them. And so it 
came to pass in less than a year the Syrians came and killed the princes, and 
took away the gold and silver treasures of the temple. Joash himself became 
very sick, and his own servants took his life as he lay helpless. 

It was quite different with little Josiah. He was only eight years old 
when he was crowned King of Judah, and he had no one so good as the high 
priest Jehoida, who was the teacher of Joash, to help him to do right. Even 
the holy writings that were given to Moses were lost, and the people did not 
ask to hear them read. But the Lord had not allowed His word to be 
destroyed, and when Josiah was having the temple repaired the high priest 
found the rolls of parchment on which the law was written, and sent it to the 
king by a servant of the king who was a writer. Josiah was full of interest in 
the ancient book, and wished to know what was in it, and his servant read it 
to him. 

When he found that he and his people were not living as God had com- 
manded in the law, he sent to inquire of the Lord what He would have them 
to do, and they went to Huldah, the prophetess. She told the king's mes- 
sengers that a great calamity would fall upon the kingdom because they had 
turned away from the true God, but because the king's heart was tender and 
full of desire to follow the Lord, it should not come during his lifetime. 

Then the king called all the chief men of Judah, and the people of the 
city, both great and small, with the priests and the Levites, to the Lord's 
house, and there he read in their hearing the word of the Lord. It was like 



THE FOUR CAPTIVE CHILDREN. in 

a new book to the most of them, but they were ready to follow the king in 
making a solemn promise to the Lord to do His commandments, and bring 
back the true worship. 

So they had a great feast of the passover, to which all the people came 
with offerings, and there was no passover in all the history of the kings of 
Judah and Israel that was like this one that was held in the eighteenth year 
of the reign of Josiah. 

After he had prepared the temple for worship, and had destroyed the 
altars of the idols, he went out to meet the King of Egypt in battle and was 
killed, and there was a great mourning for him in all the land, for he had 
been a good king — kind to his people and faithful to his God. Jeremiah the 
prophet made a great lamentation for him, for he knew that one of Josiah's 
sons would be the last king of Judah, and that for their sins the people would 
be driven out of their own land to be captives in Babylon for seventy years. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE FOUR CAPTIVE CHILDREN. 

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came with his armies and besieged 
Jerusalem, just as Jeremiah the prophet had foretold. He took the king and 
the princes of Judah captive, and carried away their precious things from the 
temple and the palaces into his own land, and put them in the temples of his 
gods. Before twenty years had passed the whole nation had been driven into 
captivity, and their holy house had been burned, and the ark of the covenant 
lost or destroyed. As the kingdom of Israel had also been scattered, the 
whole land lay desolate, and the walls of the cities were broken down. 

When the King of Babylon first beseiged Jerusalem he carried away the 
finest of the princely families to serve him. They were the flower of Jeru- 
salem — young men of noble face and form ; well taught in the learning of the 
Jews, and skilfull in the sciences of that time. They were also chosen for 
their natural ability to learn the language and the wisdom of the Chaldeans. 

Among these were four boys named Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and 
Azariah. The king gave these boys into the care of his chief officer, who 
set teachers over them and treated them very kindly, while the king sent 
them each day meat and wine from his own table. The Chaldeans offered 



H2 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

these things to idols, and then ate of them themselves ; they also used some 
meats for food that were unclean to an Israelite, so that the four children of 
Judah determined that they would not touch the king's meat and drink. 

Daniel spoke to the chief officer about it, and though he had learned to 
love Daniel very much, he was afraid to have the boys refuse the king's food. 

"I fear my lord the king," he said, "who hath appointed your meat and 
your drink, for why should he see your faces sadder than the children which 
are of your sort? Then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king." 

But Daniel turned to Melzar, the steward, and begged him to prove 
them by giving them only vegetables to eat and water to drink for ten days, 
and "Then," said he "let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and 
the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: 
and as thou seest, deal with thy servants." And he proved them for ten 
days. 

At the end of that time their faces were fatter and fairer than the faces 
of all the others who ate portions from the King's table, and they were 
allowed to eat the food they had chosen. 

They also grew in wisdom and judgment. Daniel had the gift of under- 
standing visions and dreams, and the sift came from God, and not from the 
study of magic. Among all the young men these four were most pleasing to 
the king, and they were called to the palace to stand before him. 

Not long after this the king had a dream that seemed very wonderful to 
him, but he could not remember it. He called all his magicians, and 
astrologers, and wise men together, and told them that they must tell him 
what his dream was, and the meaning of it, or he would destroy them. There 
was no man wise enough to tell him, and he ordered that all the wise men 
of Babylon should be killed, Daniel and his friends among them. 

Daniel asked the captain of the king's guard why the king was so hasty 
with his decree, and the captain told him. 

Then Daniel went to the kinor and told him that if he would give him a 
little time he would tell him his dream and its meaning, and he went to his 
three friends and together they prayed the God of Heaven to show them the 
dream and its interpretation. 

That night Daniel saw in a vision from God the same thing that the king 
had seen and had forgotten. It was a great image standing before the king, 
and shining like the sun. The head was of pure gold, the breast and arms 
of silver, and the rest of the body of brass ; while the legs were of iron, and 



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IN THE FIERY FURNACE. 



ii4 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

the feet were part of iron and part of clay. As he looked a great stone cut 
from a mountain by unseen hands was hurled at the image, striking its feet 
and breaking them. Then the image fell and broke into pieces so fine 
that the winds blew them away, but the stone grew to be a great mountain 
that filled the earth. 

Then Daniel gave thanks to God for showing him the dream, and went 
to the king. 

He told the king that the God of Heaven alone had revealed the dream, 
for no man could know it, and he told him what the dream had been. He 
also told him that God had shown him the meaning ; that the head of gold 
was the king himself, who reigned over the greatest kingdom on earth, but 
after him new kingdoms would rise, and the silver, the brass, the iron and 
the clay stood for these ; but in the days of the kingdom of iron and clay the 
God of heaven would set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed, but 
it would destroy all the kingdoms that had gone before it. This kingdom — 
the great stone cut without hands from the mountain — meant the Kingdom 
of Christ. 

The king was so astonished at Daniel's wisdom — for it was the dream 
he had forgotten brought back and interpreted — that he fell on his face 
before Daniel and reverenced the God of heaven. He made Daniel chief 
ruler in his realm and gave also great honors to his friends. 

Nebuchadnezzar soon forgot God, for he set up a great golden image 
on the plain of Dura, and called a feast of dedication. He had all his princes 
and governors there, and his captains, and judges, and rulers. The musi- 
cians were there also, with many kinds of instruments, and a herald was there 
who cried in a loud voice the command of the king. It was a call to worship 
the golden image. At the first sound of the bands of music all were to fall 
down before the golden image, or failing to do so, be thrown into a fiery 
furnace. 

Among the rulers were the three friends of Daniel, whose names had 
been changed by the king to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They did 
not fall before the golden image, and some jealous Chaldeans who saw them 
went and told the king. Then the king, who had a fiery temper, was angry, 
and sent for the three young men. He told them the bands should play 
again, and if they failed to worship the golden image they should be cast into 
the furnace, "and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands ?"" 
he asked. 




DANIEL IN THE LIONS' DEN. 



u6 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

"We are not careful to answer thee in this matter," they said, " If it be 
so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fur- 
nace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king." 

Then the king in a great rage called his mighty men to bind the young 
men, and after the furnace was heated seven times hotter than before, they 
were thrown in. So great was the heat that the men who threw them in were 
killed by it in the sight of the" king. As he watched the great door of the 
furnace the king rose up and said, 

" Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire ?" 

"True, O king," said his lords and captains. 

Then the king with his eyes fixed upon the glowing door of the furnace 
said, 

" Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have 
no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." 

Then he went near the door of the furnace and cried, 

"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, 
come forth and come hither!" 

Then they came out before the king and all the people, who saw that the 
fire had no power over their bodies, for no hair of their head was burned, 
and no smell of fire was upon their garments. 

Then the king was very humble, and acknowledged the God of heaven, 
" because there is no other God " he said " that can deliver after this sort." 
And he promoted the young men to still higher places in his kingdom. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 

The Lord saw that the heart of Nebuchadnezzar was lifted up with pride 
because he was king of a great people, and had conquered many weaker 
nations. He was proud of his royal city, Babylon. The walls of Babylon 
were sixty miles in length, and in them stood one hundred brazen gates. 
There were wonderful palaces, and statues, and bridges, and gardens. The 
river Euphrates ran through the city, and near the king's palace was a hill 
covered with trees and flowering plants from many lands, called the Hanging 
Gardens. 



THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 117 

Babylon was built on a plain, but the king had these gardens made for 
his wife, who had come from a country of hills. 

The king was praised so much by the princes and rulers that he thought 
only of his own power and riches, and became proud and cruel. So the Lord 
sent him a dream. He saw a tree great and high, standing in the midst of a 
wide plain. It grew until it reached the heavens, and its branches spread to 
the ends of the earth. It was thick with green leaves, and heavy with fruit ; 
the birds lived in it, and the beasts lay in its shadow, and all things living 
came to it for food. Then he saw an angel coming down from heaven crying, 

" Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches ; shake off his leaves, and 
scatter his fruit ; let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his 
branches ; nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with 
a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field ; and let it be wet 
with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the grass of 
the earth ; let his heart be changed from a man's, and let a beast's heart be 
given unto him, and let seven times pass over him." 

This dream was given that the king might be taught that the Lord alone 
is King. 

Daniel, named by the king Belteshazzar, was called to interpret the 
dream, and the Lord gave him power to do it. 

"The tree that thou sawest," said Daniel, "it is thou, O king, that art 
grown and become strong ; for thy greatness is grown and reacheth unto 
heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth." 

Then Daniel told the king that he must be driven from men to dwell 
with the beasts of the field ; to eat grass with the oxen, and be wet with the 
dews of heaven, until he had learned that the Most High rules in the king- 
dom of men, and gives to whosoever He will. But as the roots of the tree 
were left in the ground, so his kingdom should be preserved for him until he 
had learned that the heavens do rule. 

At the end of a year the king's heart had not been made humble, for as 
he walked in his palace he said to himself: 

" Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom 
by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty ? " 

And while he yet spoke there fell a voice from heaven, saying : 

" O, King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken ; the kingdom is departed 
from thee." 

And within an hour the word of the Lord came true. For seven years he 
was without reason, and was an outcast from his kingdom. But at the end of 



n8 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

that time his eyes were lifted to heaven and his reason returned, and his king- 
dom was restored to him, for he had learned that God alone is great, and 
" Those that walk in pride He is able to abase." 

Belshazzar was the next king of Babylon. He made a great feast, and a 
thousand of his lords were bidden to sit around his tables in the great h a u f 
the palace. While he drank the wine he thought of the holy vessels of gold 
and silver that his father had brought out of the Temple at Jerusalem, and he 
sent for them, and into these golden bowls that had been consecrated to the 
worship of God he poured wine and gave it to his princes and to his wives, 
while they praised the gods of gold, and silver, and wood, and stone. 

While they were feasting, and laughing, and singing, there came a man's 
hand and wrote some strange words on the wall of the great hall where they 
sat. The kino- saw the hand as it wrote, and he was so much afraid that he 
trembled and grew very weak. He called for his wise men and they could not 
read the writing, but the queen remembered that in the time of Nebuchad- 
nezzar there was a man whom he made master of the magicians because he 
had power to interpret dreams and make all doubtful things clear. 

So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king told him that if he 
would read the writing on the wall he should be clothed royally and be made 
the third ruler in the kingdom. 

"Let thy gifts be to thyself," said Daniel, "and give thy rewards to 
another, yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the 
interpretation." 

Then Daniel reminded the king of that which fell upon his father Nebu- 
chadnezzar, when he had grown proud and hard-hearted toward God and men, 
and, though he knew all this, he also had lifted himself up against the Lord of 
heaven, and had defiled the holy vessels of the Temple by drinking from them 
to gods which could neither see or hear, and because of this the message had 
been written on the wall. And this was the interpretation of the strange 
words, — 

" God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art weighed in 
the balances, and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to 
the Medes and the Persians." 

The king clothed Daniel in scarlet, and gave him a chain of gold, and 
proclaimed him third ruler in the kingdom, but the same night Belshazzar was 
slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom. 

The new king set one hundred and twenty princes over the kingdom, and 
over these he set three presidents, the first of which was Daniel. The king 




THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. 



i2o CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE 

loved Daniel for the wise and good spirit that was in him, and this stirred up 
jealousy in the hearts of the Babylonian princes, and they watched Daniel to 
see if thev could find somethings against him to tell the kine, but they could 
not, for he was faithful in all his work. 

Then they agreed to plot against him, and they went to the king and per- 
suaded him to make a decree that whoever should ask any petition of any 
god or man for thirty days, except of the king, he should be thrown into the 
den of lions, and they asked the king to sign the decree, so that it could 
not be changed, and he signed it. 

When Daniel heard of the decree, and knew that the king had signed it, 
he went into his own house, and to his chamber. There the windows were 
always open toward Jerusalem, and he kneeled down as he had done every 
day since he was taken from his own land, and prayed to God with his face 
toward the Temple in Jerusalem. And the men who were plotting against him 
watched him. 

Then they hurried to the king, saying, 

"That Daniel, which is of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O, 
King, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times 
a day/' 

The king was greatly disturbed at this, and set his heart on the deliver- 
ance of Daniel, and labored till sunset to do it. But his princes said it could 
not be done, because, according to the law of the Medes and, the Persians, no 
decree made by the king could be changed. 

So Daniel was condemned to be cast into the den of lions, but the king 
said, 

"Thy God, whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee." 

Then a stone was laid over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it 
with his own signet, and with that of his lords, that the purpose might not be 
changed. 

That was a long nieht for Darius the kinof. He could neither eat nor 
sleep, and he would hear no music, but very early in the morning he went to 
the den of the lions and with a very sorrowful voice cried : 

" O Daniel, servant of the living God ! is thy God whom thou servest 
continually able to deliver thee from the lions ? " 

Then up from the pit came a strong, cheery voice saying : 

" O king, live forever ! My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the 
lions mouths, that they have not hurt me." 



THE STORY OF JONAH. 121 

Then there was joy in the king's heart and he had Daniel brought up 
out of the den, and no hurt was found upon him, because he had believed in 
God, but the men who had accused Daniel were cast into the lions' den and 
destroyed. 

Darius acknowledged the God of Daniel before all his kingdom, and 
commanded the people to honor Him, so that Daniel and his people suffered 
no more from their enemies during the reign of Darius. After the death o 
Darius, Cyrus was made king of Persia, and he also was kind to Daniel. 
The Lord gave him a tender heart toward the captives of Judah who had 
been in his land for seventy years, so that he sent them back into their own 
land and helped them to rebuild their city and their Temple 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
THE STORY OF JONAH. 

More than eight hundred years before the birth of Christ a prophet named 
Jonah lived in the land of Israel. * He had given the Lord's messages to his own 
people, and they had listened to them, and a part of their country had been 
saved by obeying the Word of the Lord as it was brought to them by Jonah. 

But when the Lord wished to send Jonah to warn a great city in Assyria 
to repent of their sins, he did not wish to go. Nineveh was a very old and a 
very great city. It was built soon after the flood, but was still at a high point 
of glory and wealth in the time of Jonah. 

It was a heathen city, but God is the Father of all who live, and cares for 
all His children, though they may not know or care for Him. 

Perhaps Jonah was afraid, for the people were strong and warlike, and 
they would not wish to hear about their wickedness. So Jonah ran away to the 
sea shore and took a ship from Joppa to go to Tarshish. He had not gone far 
from shore when a storm of wind rose, and the wind tossed the ship on the 
great angry waves until it was very nearly wrecked 

The men were afraid, and each prayed to his God, and threw out the goods 
they were carrying in order to make the ship lighter. 

Where was Jonah ? He was below the decks asleep. When the captain 
found him he cried out, 



122 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

" What meanest thou. O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that 
God will think upon us, that we perish not." 

Then they began to wonder if the storm had not been sent upon them for 
the wickedness of some one in the ship, and they cast lots to see who it could 
be. The lot fell upon Jonah. Then they asked Jonah his name and country, 
and of his journey. He told them all about it. Then the men were more 
afraid, for they knew that he had tried to run away from the Lord, and they 
said, 

" What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us ?" 

"Take me up and cast me forth into the sea," he said, " so shall the sea 
be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." 

It was not easy for the men, who were kind-hearted, to throw into the sea 
a man so honest and so willing to die, so they rowed very hard, and tried their 
best to reach the shore, but they could not. So they prayed to Jonah's God 
to forgive them, and then threw Jonah into the sea. 

But the Lord meant not only to teach Jonah a lesson, but to teach, 
through Jonah, a lesson to His children who should live in the ages to come. 
He was to make him also a sign of the coming Christ. 

When Jonah believed he was sinking down into the green depths of the 
sea to die, a great fish, prepared by the Lord, opened his mouth and took him 
in. We cannot understand all the ways of God, but we know that " nothing 
is impossible with God," and that he was able to keep his servant alive even 
in such a strange place as this. 

For three days and three nights he was kept in his living prison, and was 
able to pray to God, and to know where he was. 

"The waters compassed me about," he said, "even to the soul; the 
depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains ; the earth with her bars was 
about me forever." 

Then he praised and thanked God, for he knew that he meant to save 
him. And when the Lord spoke to the fish, it threw Jonah out upon the dry 
land. 

The second time Jonah heard the voice of the Lord telling him to go to 
Nineveh and preach the words that should be given him to say, and this time 
he obeyed. 

It was a long journey to Nineveh, and when Jonah reached it he found 
that the city was so great that it would take three days to walk around the 
walls. 




JONAH THROWN ON THE DRY LAND. 



124 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

The walls were a hundred feet high. And so broad that three chariots 
could be driven on them side by side. The walls had fifteen hundred 
towers, each two hundred feet high. Inside the walls lived hundreds of thou- 
sands of people, many of them rich merchants or princes and nobles who lived 
in palaces, and thought only of their own pleasure and glory. They had 
grown very selfish and wicked. 

When Jonah had walked a day's journey into the city, he began to cry in 
the streets the message God had given him, 

"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown ! " 

The people began to tremble and be afraid of the strange voice that went 
up and down the long streets crying out these terrible words. They began 
to believe in Jonah's God, and to repent. 

They repented in the eastern way, by putting on a garment of coarse sack- 
cloth, and sitting in ashes. All did this, even to the king, who took off his 
beautiful robes and sat down in ashes before the Lord. He also proclaimed 
a fast to all the people, and urged them to M turn every one from their evil 
way." 

When the Lord saw that they turned away from their sins, for He could 
look into their hearts, and read all their thoughts, He was satisfied, and said 
he would not destroy Nineveh. 

But Jonah, who could not read the hearts of men, was not satisfied. He 
was very angry. He wanted to have the Ninevites see that he was a true 
prophet, for if no destruction came upon them he feared that they might call 
him a false prophet. So he complained to God, and said, 

" Now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me, for it is better to 
die than to live !" 

The Lord's gentle word to Jonah was, 

" Doest thou well to be angry ?" 

Jonah went outside the city walls, and made for himself a little house of 
the branches of trees and waited to see if the city would be destroyed. It 
was very hot and Jonah was deeply troubled, and the Lord, who is full of 
love and pity for His children, caused a gourd vine with large leaves to spring 
up and grow over the dried branches of the little house that sheltered Jonah, 
and he was very glad and grateful. But the Lord, who always looks upon 
the heart, saw that the heart of Jonah was not yet wholly right, and the next 
morning he allowed a worm to eat the gourd until it withered. Then the sun 



ESTHER, THE QUEEN. 125 

beat down upon Jonah's head until he fainted and wished to die, saying, as 
he had said before, 

" It is better for me to die than live !" 

But the Lord was patient with him, and said, 

" Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?" 

And Jonah replied ungraciously, 

" I do well to be angry, even unto death." 

Then the Lord in his love and pity answered, 

" Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, 
neither madest it grow ; which came up in a night and perished in a night ; 
and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six- 
score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their 
left hand, and also much cattle ?" 

Jonah did not know all that was in the mind of the Lord, though he was 
a prophet. He did not know that he was one of the signs of the Lord's first 
coming, for Jesus spoke of Jonah as a "sign," that as he was three days and 
three nights within the great fish "so shall the Son of man be three days and 
three nights in the heart of the earth." 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

ESTHER, THE QUEEN, 

About five hundred years before Christ King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) 
reigned over Persia. In the third yeai of his reign he gave a royal feast 
to all the princes and nobles of Persia and Media, in Shushan, the royal city. 
It lasted one hundred and eighty days, and was very costly, for the king 
wished to show the great men from all his provinces the riches and glory 
of his kingdom and of his palace. 

At the end of these days he made another feast to all who were in 
Shushan, a feast of seven days, and which included great and small. The 
palace garden was hung with awnings of white and green and violet, fastened 
with cords and silver rings to pillars of marble. 

Wine was given to the guests in golden cups as they sat on couches 
of gold and silver, and the pavement of the court was of many colored 
marbles. 



126 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

In another part of the palace Vashti, the queen, also made a feast for 
the women. 

On the seventh day the king sent his seven chamberlains to bring Queen 
Vashti before him, wearing her royal crown. He wished to show to his 
people and princes the beauty of the queen, for she was very fair to look upon. 

But the queen refused to obey the king's command, and he was 
angry. He asked the seven princes who stood next to him in the kingdom 
what he should do, and what the laws of the Medes and Persians (which 
could not be broken) would say in such a case. 

The princes did not speak of any law, but one of them told the king that 
the conduct of Vashti would do them great harm through all the kingdom, 
for women hearing of the act of the queen, would despise and disobey their 
husbands. They advised, therefore, that a commandment should go forth 
from the king and be written among the laws of the Medes and Persians, 
that Vashti should no more come before the king, and that her royal estate 
should be given to another better than she. 

This pleased the king, and he did as Memucan, the prince, had advised, 
and he sent letters into all parts of his empire to people of various languages, 
that every man should rule in his own house. 

Then the king's servants, the nobles, advised the king to send officers 
to every part of his kingdom to find some one worthy to take the place of 
Queen Vashti, and the plan pleased the king, and he did so. 

There was in Shushan a Jew named Mordecai, who had been brought 
away from Jerusalum with the captives when Nebuchadnezzar conquered 
the city. He had an adopted daughter named Hadassah. This was her true 
name, although the Persians called her Esther. She was the daughter of 
Mordecai's uncle, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her 
for his own. She was very beautiful, and as good as she was beautiful, for 
Mordecai had taught her to be faithful to the true God, though living among 
a strange people. 

When Mordecai heard that the king was seeking for a maiden worthy to 
be a queen through all his provinces, he brought Esther and placed her in 
care of Hegai, who had the care of that part of the king's house where the 
women lived. Hegai was very kind to her, and gave her seven maids to 
serve her, and the best place in the house for her own. 

Mordecai had told Esther not to speak of her Jewish family, but every 
day he walked before the court of the women's house to ask how she did and 
what had become of her. 



ESTHER, THE QUEEN. 127 

Out of all the maidens brought from the city and the kingdom Esther 
was chosen by the king to be queen in the place of Vashti, and he placed the 
royal crown upon her head, and proclaimed a great feast that he called 
Esther's feast, when he gave gifts and made a holiday for all the people to 
rest and be happy in all his provinces. 

Mordecai sat daily at the king's gate, and once while there he heard of a 
plot to kill the king by two of his chamberlains, and he sent word secretly to 
Esther, and she told the king in Mordecai's name, so that these two men were 
hanged, and the account of it was written in the king's book of records. 

About this time the king gave great honors to a man named Haman. He 
set him above all his princes, and when the king's servants who* were at his 
gate knew it they all bowed down and gave great honor to Haman, when- 
ever he passed, for the king had so commanded them; but Mordecai would 
not bow to Haman. When Haman saw this he was full of anger toward 
Mordecai the Jew, and he made a wicked plan to destroy not only Mordecai, 
but all his people. 

So he came with wily ways and cunning speech to the king, saying, 

" There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the 
people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from 
from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the 
king's profit to suffer them. If it please the king let it be written that they be 
destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those 
that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries." 

Then the king gave his ring to Haman as a sign that he would pledge 
his word to do what he asked, and said, 

"The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it 
seemeth good to thee." 

Then Haman had letters written and sealed with the king's seal ring, 
saying to the rulers of every province in the kingdom that all Jews, both 
young and old, throughout the kingdom, must be destroyed in one day, and 
their goods, and money, and lands be taken for a prey, and the thirteenth day 
of the twelfth month was set in which to destroy them. 

After the messengers were sent out the king and Haman sat down to 
drink wine, but the city was troubled. 

Then Mordecai rent his clothes in sign of mourning, and went out into 
the streets of the city clothed in sack-cloth uttering a loud and bitter cry. He 
cried even before the king's gate. 



128 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

All through the kingdom there was great mourning among the Jews, and 
they fasted and wept in sack-cloth and ashes. 

When Esther heard that Mordecai was clothed in sack-cloth she was 
deeply grieved, and sent some garments to clothe him, but he would not 
receive them. Then she sent for the king's chamberlain Hatach, and gave 
him a command to Mordecai to tell what caused his grief. 

Hatach found him at the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had 
happened to him, and of the great sum of money that Haman had promised 
to pay into the king's treasuries for the Jews to destroy them. He also gave 
him a copy of the decree to show Esther, and told Hatach to charge her that 
she go before the king and make request for her people. 

Hatach took these words to Esther, and Esther sent a reply by Hatach, 
saying that it was known in all the king's palace that no man or woman could 
come into the king's presence in the inner court who had not been called, and 
for any who so entered there was but one law, and that was that they be put 
to death, unless the king hold out to them the golden sceptre. She had not 
been called to see the king, she said, in thirty days. 

Hatach gave this message to Mordecai, and he again sent word to Esther 
that she could not hope to escape the decree, as she too was of the Jews. He 
told her that deliverance must come to the Jews in some other way, but 
she and her family would be destroyed, and then he added, 

" Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time 
as this? " 

Then Esther made her resolve, and sent word to Mordecai to gather all 
the Jews in Shushan together to fast night and day, while she and her 
maidens fasted also. 

" And so I will go in unto the king," she said, "which is not according 
to the law, and if I perish, I perish." 

And Mordecai went his way and did as Esther had commanded. 

It was the third day when Esther arose from her fast before the Lord 
and put on her beautiful royal robes and stood in the inner court of the 
king's house in sight of the royal throne. 

When the king saw Esther standing in the inner court he was not dis- 
pleased, but his heart was turned toward her, and he held out to her the 
golden sceptre that was in his hand. 

"What wilt thou, Queen Esther?" he said, "and what is thy request? 
it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom." 




HAMAN DENOUNCED BY THE QUEEN. 



133 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

"If it seem good unto the king," said Esther, "let the king and Haman 
come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him." 

So the king commanded Haman, and they came to the queen's banquet. 
The king knew that Esther had a favor to ask of him, so he said again : 

"What is thy petition ? and it shall be granted thee; and what is thy 
request ? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed." 

But Esther was wise. She begged as her petition and request that the 
king and Haman would come to the banquet she should prepare the next 
day also, and she would then do as the king had said. 

Haman went home very happy and proud that he had been so honored 
by the queen, and told his wife and his friends of all the glory and honor that 
had come to him. 

"Yet all this availeth me nothing," he said, "so long as I see Mordecai 
the Jew sitting at the king's gate." 

Then his wife and his friends urged him to build a high gallows and ask 
the king on the next day to hang Mordecai upon it. "Then go thou merrily 
with the king unto the banquet," they added. 

This pleased Haman, and he ordered the gallows to be made. 

That night the king was restless, and he could not sleep, and he com- 
manded that the book of records be brought and read aloud to him. Then he 
found that it was written that Mordecai had saved the king's life when it was 
threatened by his two chamberlains. 

"What honor and dignity hath been done to Moreecai for this ? ''' he 
asked, and his servants replied : 

"There is nothing done for him." 

"Who is in the court?" cried the king. Now Haman had come in to 
speak to the king to have Mordecai hanged. 

"Haman standeth in the court," said the king's servants, and the king 
said, 

" Let him come in." 

As Haman came in the king said, 

" What shall be done to the man that the king delighteth to honor? " 

Haman thought in his heart, " To whom would the king delight to do 
honor more than to myself," and then he replied, thinking all the time of 
himself. 

" For the man whom the king delighteth to honor let the royal apparel 
be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth 
upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head, and let this apparel 



ESTHER, THE QUEEN. 131 

and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble 
princes, that they may array the men withal whom the king delighteth to 
honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and pro- 
claim before him, ' Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth 
to honor.' " 

Then the king said, " Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse as 
thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai, the Jew, that sitteth at the king's 
gate ; let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken." 

Haman did as he was commanded, for he could do nothing else, and 
after it was all over Mordecai took his place again at the king's gate, but 
Haman hastened home mourning, and with his head covered. 

The next day he came to the queen's banquet with the king, and again 
the king said, 

" What is thy petition, Queen Esther ? and it shall be granted thee ; and 
what is thy request ? and it shall be performed, even to the half of my king- 
dom." 

Then the queen made her request, saying, 

"If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let 
my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request ; for we are 
sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we 
had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen I had held my tongue, although 
the enemy could not countervail the king's damage." 

"Who is he, and where is he," cried the king, "That durst presume in 
his heart to do so ?" 

Then Esther said, " The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." 

Haman was overcome with fear at this, and the king was so angry that 
he rose up and went out into the palace garden. Haman stood up to make 
a plea for his life, and when the king came in he found Haman fallen at 
the queen's feet. 

One of the king's chamberlains who knew what the king wished told him 
of the gallows at Hainan's house that had been made for Mordecai, and 
the king said, " Hang him thereon," and they did so, and the king's anger 
was pacified. 

That day the king gave Haman's house to the queen. Mordecai came 
before the king that day also, for Esther had told him how he was related to 
her, and the King gave to Mordecai the ring that he had once given to 
Haman. Esther's petition was not yet finished, so she fell down at the king's 



132 CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. 

feet and asked for the life of her people, and that the decree might be 
changed. 

Then the king held out his golden sceptre to Esther, and she arose. 
She spoke noble words of petition for her people, and the king told Mordecai 
to write in the king's name and seal with the king's seal letters that should 
make the decree void. 

So the scribes were called in and the letters were written and sealed 
with the king's ring, and sent out to every province in the kingdom. 

Mordecai went out of the palace that day clothed in royal garments of 
violet and white, fine linen and purple, and a great crown of gold upon his 
head, and there was joy in Shushan, and there was joy among the jews all 
over the land. They hanged the ten sons of Haman, and destroyed their 
enemies by the king's permission, so that they had rest from persecution. 
They also set apart two days for a feast of thanksgiving through all time, 
and the feast of Purim is kept by all Jews to this day, as it was first con- 
firmed by the decree of Esther. 

And Mordecai was next to the king and honored by his brethren the 
Jews as long as he lived, for he always sought their peace, and was as a father 
to them. 



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